India’s Labour Movements Must Fight the Climate Crisis — Or Watch the Working Class Perish

On this May Day 2026, a urgent question demands an answer: why are India’s trade unions still looking the other way on the climate crisis? Writer and activist K. Sahadevan, in a searing reflection published by The AIDEM, lays bare a dangerous contradiction — while 500 million unorganised workers face the brutal consequences of environmental destruction, organised labour movements continue to side with polluting industries over people. India’s coal-dependent power sector still generates over 70% of electricity, while the Modi government’s new labour codes gut workers’ rights to organise. Corporate greed drives both the climate catastrophe and the wage theft of India’s working poor. The soil is poisoned, the rivers are dying, and the air chokes millions — yet trade union leaders remain trapped in outdated ideologies that treat environmental struggle as the enemy of workers’ rights. This May Day, the call must be louder than ever: Workers of the world, unite — and protect the very earth beneath your feet.

🔗 Source: https://theaidem.com/en-thinking-aloud-on-the-very-existence-of-the-global-working-class-on-this-may-day/