Class & Climate: Union Power with Brandon Dyck - IBEW

04/24/25 • 17 min

Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy

The energy transition runs on union power. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is one of the labour unions that will generate the electricity needed to seize the potential and jobs of a just transition.

Brandon Dyck, government affairs coordinator at IBEW, joins the show to discuss how rank and file IBEW members experience climate change firsthand and stand to benefit from the energy transition.

IBEW members will be crucial to achieving the energy transition — from the thousands of kilometres of transmission lines needed for an east-west grid to rapidly expanding green energy. Dyck makes the case for putting workers in the driver's seat, backed by committed public investment to create the infrastructure and jobs that will guarantee a just and fair transition.

This is the third episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers and communities — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment.

Notes and further reading:

Brandon Dyck, government affairs coordinator at IBEW, joins the show to discuss how rank and file IBEW members experience climate change firsthand and stand to benefit from the energy transition.

Notes and further reading:

Previous Episode

Class & Climate: Building a Green Workforce with Lindsay Amundsen

Lindsay Amundsen of Canada's Building Trades Unions explains what a just transition really means for workers—and how union-led training programs are preparing the workforce for the green economy.

What does a just transition look like on the ground—for workers, apprentices, and communities? In the second episode of Class & Climate, Lindsay Amundsen, Director of Workforce Development at Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), shares how the labour movement is shaping climate solutions by investing in people.

From empowering underrepresented workers in the trades, to building clean energy infrastructure with union labour, CBTU’s approach to workforce development is grounded in equity and long-term economic resilience. Amundsen makes the case for public investments in training, and for putting workers—especially those in carbon-intensive industries—at the centre of climate planning.

This is the second episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment.

Notes: