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This book explores how climate policies are reshaping work, focusing on the global transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. Analysing changes in policy, firms and workplaces, it examines how this shift is transforming jobs and production networks across diverse regions. Through engaging case studies, it assesses whether a ‘just transition’ is unfolding in practice, highlighting the gap between promises of good green jobs and the everyday realities of restructuring for workers.
Covering the full breadth of auto-related work, the book places workers and trade unions at the centre, offering a global account of one of the most significant industrial transformations of our time.
Mathieu Dupuis is Professor of Labour Relations in the Department of Industrial Relations at Laval University.
Ian Greer is Research Professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labour Relations and Director of the Ithaca Co-Lab.
Harry Katz is Director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution and Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining at Cornell University.
Anja Kirsch is Professor of Gender, Governance and International Management at Freie Universität Berlin.
1. The Shift to Electric Vehicles and the Struggle for a Just Transition – Mathieu Dupuis, Ian Greer and Anja Kirsch
Part I: Bargaining Over the Transition
2. Testimony from Angelo DiCaro, Max Fazeli, and Thorsten Gröger
3. Reinforcing the Status Quo or Sparking a New Industrial Order? The BEV Transition and Labor Market Dualism in Korea – Seong-Jae Cho and Dongwoo Park
4. An Uneven and Fragmented Transition to Electric Vehicles? Evidence from Benelux Car, Truck and Component Plants – Lynford Dor, Valeria Pulignano, Marco Hauptmeier and Yennef Vereycken
5. Restructuring as Usual? Concession Bargaining in the Green Transition at a French Carmaker – Juan Sebastian Carbonell, Armanda Cetrulo and Angelo Moro
6. Employee Representatives of Automotive Suppliers on the Transition to Electric Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Central and South-Eastern Europe – Martin Krzywdzinski, Patrik Gažo, Ştefan Guga, Monika Martišková, Tibor Meszmann and Katarzyna Rakowska
7. Battery Electric Vehicle Production in the United States: Contradictions of an Unjust Transition – Evren M. Dincer, Ian Greer and Tobias Zimmermann
Part II: Workers, Skills and Workplaces
8. Testimony from Bruno Dobrusin
9. Just Transition in Practice at a German Automotive Supplier Plant – Anja Kirsch and Jule Klink
10. Electric Vehicle Transition and Chinese Investments: The Emergence of Hybrid Labor Regimes in the Hungarian Automotive Industry – Natasa Szabó
11. Navigating the Shift: Engineers’ and Skilled Production Workers’ Experiences with Electric Vehicle Transition in Germany – Sabine Pfeiffer
12. The Transformation of the Auto Service Technicians in the Electric Vehicle Value Chain –Gregor Murray, Mathieu Dupuis and Julie Hagan
13. EV Workforce Transitions: Skills Planning in a Context of Uncertainty in the Eastern Cape, South Africa – Heila Lotz Sisitka, Sam van Heerdan, Presha Ramsarup and Wendy Poulton
Part III: Public Policy and Global Production Networks
14. Testimony from Georg Leutert, Christian Christen and Will Tucker
15. Power Resources and Union Strategies in the Transition to EV: Evidence from Two Italian Suppliers – Laura Leonelli
16. At the Extractive Edge of the EV Industry: Labor Conflict, Territory and Legitimacy in Chile’s Lithium Mining – Lucas Cifuentes Croquevielle
17. Caught in the Low-End ICE Trap: Turkey’s Struggle for Direction in the Global EV Transition – Evren M. Dincer
18. Government Policies Shaping Automotive Sector Restructuring in North America and the EU: A Labor-centered Approach – Grzegorz Lechowski and Christian Pépin
19. Just Transition in an Unjust Europe? Transnational Battery Production, European Integration and Exhaustive Labor Regimes – Stefanie Hürtgen
20. Just Transition? Regimes of Production and Skill Formation in the Chinese Electric Vehicle Industry – Boy Luethje and Siqi Luo
Conclusion: Unjust Transitions and Beyond – Mathieu Dupuis, Ian Greer, and Anja Kirsch