Last week (May 8, 2026), the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, Philippines, officially concluded with the grand theme of “Navigating Our Future, Together.” In their official Chair’s Statement, regional leaders proudly showcased their agenda of economic integration, digital transformation, and the strengthening of the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) as a pillar of the energy transition.
However, when the fanfare of shared diplomacy ended, one vulnerable group was barely heard at the negotiating table: the millions of working-class people on the front lines of the transition from a fossil fuel regime to green energy. In fact, exactly one week before the summit (May 1), thousands of workers from Jakarta to Manila took to the streets to commemorate May Day 2026. The echoing demands remained the same: decent living wages, the abolition of precarious outsourcing systems, and humane labor protections.
The history of the labor struggle is a mirror of resilience in the face of changing times. Globally, the labor movement was born out of the exploitation of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. In the 1980s, the closure of coal mines in the UK triggered massive strikes, which later became the forerunner of the Just Energy Transition (JET) concept. Important lessons also come from Germany, where JET was realized through the reskilling of coal miners and the formation of a tripartite commission. History proves that structural changes can only succeed if workers are given a seat at the negotiating table.
In Indonesia, the history of the labor movement is equally crucial, rooted in the working-class resistance against colonial capitalism, up to the consolidation of independent unions post-Reformasi. Now, amidst the current of decarbonization, the resilience of this movement is once again tested by an energy transition architecture that remains elitist with minimal meaningful participation.
More than 150,000 workers in the coal and nickel sectors are now on the brink. Drastic cuts in production quotas in the 2026 Work Plan and Budget (RKAB)—where coal production drops to around 600 million tons—threaten massive layoffs. Many of them are contract and informal workers with minimal social protection.
On the other hand, occupational health and safety (OHS) conditions are deeply concerning. In nickel smelter areas like the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), workers are often exposed to toxic gases and chemicals without adequate protection. Furthermore, the US Department of Labor has even included Indonesian nickel in the list of goods produced with potential forced labor.
Similar problems occur in other ASEAN countries. In Vietnam, the coal sector directly employs 77,000–111,000 workers. Production declines due to the energy transition threaten the income and jobs of thousands of miners and coal-fired power plant workers. In the Philippines, the nickel industry causes deadly pollution, the loss of farmers’ livelihoods, and below-minimum wages.
Questioning the Transition Policy Gap: Energy Sector vs. Labor
In the Cebu Summit outcome document, ASEAN leaders specifically praised the ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting (ALMM) for drafting the ASEAN Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health in the Informal Sector to protect vulnerable workers. In another paragraph, they reinforced the decarbonization agenda through the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) by promoting renewable energy integration and Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS).
Oddly, these two pillars are left to operate in their respective silos. There is virtually no harmonization bridge between the energy ministers designing the transition and the labor ministers in ALMM.
This policy gap is a black hole for the future of workers. The energy transition is viewed from a technocratic and investment lens, neglecting to formulate a binding social mitigation roadmap for the hundreds of thousands of miners and power plant workers who will be affected by the phase-out. The transition is considered complete when funding is disbursed and emission targets are met, without considering who will pay the social price of this disruption.
Conversely, the lack of integration of the energy pillar with labor rights protection makes ASEAN’s commitment to cross-sectoral gender mainstreaming and the protection of persons with disabilities merely cosmetic jargon. The ASEAN energy sector is currently highly patriarchal, absorbing only about 8% of the female workforce.
Therefore, post-ASEAN Summit in Cebu, four urgent agendas must be executed so that the theme “Navigating Our Future” can truly be felt by the workers:
First, the establishment of a Gender, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Working Group involving trade unions at the national and regional levels to independently “audit” the implementation of APAEC 2026–2030.
Second, ASEAN governments must formulate measurable GEDSI indicators in energy governance, legally bind quotas for women in green jobs programs, and ensure the design of disability-friendly employment infrastructure.
Third, absolute synchronization between the sectoral pillars of energy (APAEC) and labor (ALMM) to dismantle institutional silos, ensuring labor protection is embedded upstream in transition policy formulation.
Fourth, strengthening the consolidation between energy trade unions and civil society coalitions to pressure governments for budget transparency and demand corporate accountability in every renewable energy megaproject.
The energy transition is not merely a technical matter of replacing coal steam power with solar panels. It is a historical momentum to reconstruct the political economy governance of energy that is just for the entire working class in ASEAN.
Source: Beritabaru.co