“Anyone but Ed Miliband”: Why Britain’s Unions Hate Net Zero
Two of Britain’s most powerful unions oppose soft-left MP Ed Miliband’s bid to become chancellor. They fear the green transition could cost jobs in the oil industry, one of the few sectors where workers have consistently secured above-inflation pay raises.
Britain’s GMB and Unite unions’ opposition to Ed Miliband as chancellor highlights a key tension in the green transition: decarbonization is vital, but it threatens one of organized labor’s last strongholds — the oil industry. (Wiktor Szymanowicz / Anadolu via Getty Images)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on his way out of office. The former mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, is set to become the country’s seventh leader in the past decade. Burnham is in the process of selecting his front bench, including chancellor (the equivalent of the US treasury secretary). One of the possible choices for this role is the current Environment Minister Ed Miliband.
Business is opposed and has declared Miliband, the son of Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband, to be a socialist threat. So far, so unsurprising. More surprising was two of the country’s largest unions publicly declaring their opposition to Miliband. Unite the Union and the GMB, both affiliated to the ruling Labour Party, are pressuring Burnham not to appoint Miliband because “of his relentless focus on the net zero agenda.”
The country’s largest union, Unison, and the teachers’ union both came out in support of Miliband based on his past record of support for workers and in favor of public investment. But his opposition to new oil and gas drilling licenses in the North Sea means more to Unite and the GMB than the possibility of a left-wing chancellor.
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