Educating tomorrow's trade union activists

This feature focuses on the provision of training for trade union representatives and activists in the UK, particularly the work of the Trades Union Congress's education service, which was relaunched in 2001. New public funding arrangements, due to come into effect in August 2002, are expected to open up opportunities for expanding trade union education provision.

In 2001, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) officially relaunched its education service. Since then regional centres in the UK have been hosting special events to celebrate the work of TUC Education. This feature outlines the main trends in, and purposes of, British trade union education, and highlights two significant and innovative developments - women-only courses and online courses.

Trends in trade union education

Although British trade union education has a history dating back to the late 19th century, its massive and rapid expansion was made possible in the 1970s by government-provided grant aid for TUC-approved training courses. At that time, union education largely concentrated on training workplace representatives to bargain and negotiate on behalf of members and on training health and safety representatives to inspect workplaces and identify hazards. The cornerstone of the expanded provision was a 10-day course for workplace representatives organised on the basis of paid day release of one day per week over a 10-week period.

The election of the union-hostile Conservative Party government in 1979, the decline of the manufacturing industry heartland of trade union membership and economic recession combined to create circumstances which reduced the number of trade unionists able to negotiate paid release for longer courses. This forced a rethink of the TUC's education provision, the outcome of which was a broader range of one- and two-day courses on specific issues, such as legal developments and particular workplace hazards. The TUC also substantially increased its women-only courses in response to pressure from women in unions to address women's particular training needs, discussed in more detail below.

From 1993, the Conservative government began phasing out the grant for trade union education and this ceased altogether in 1996. This prompted another rethink, this time involving new partnerships with further and higher education institutions, together with further expansion of short courses. A more recent innovation has been the development of online courses, also discussed below (UK0110108F).

As a result of the warmer union-government relationships that have existed since the election of the Labour Party government in 1997, new funding arrangements for trade union education have been agreed and are due to come into effect in August 2002. The new arrangements mean that TUC courses run through further education courses are free of charge and, according to the TUC, this should open up opportunities for expanding the provision.

Current take-up rates

The bulk of trade union courses are delivered by the TUC education service, which in 2001 trained more than 30,000 union representatives. Although the 10-day course still exists, short courses are now by far the most popular, with topics including:

• the role of 'learning representatives' (workplace union representatives nominated by recognised trade unions to promote training issues);

• industrial relations and collective bargaining;

• health and safety; and

• equality.

Many individual trade unions also have their own education services. Of 35 TUC-affiliated unions responding to a recent University of North London survey, 30 run their own courses. Of these, 10 train over 1,000 trade unionists per year, whilst the scale of the provision in the other 20 unions is quite small.

Data from the Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 indicates that 70% of union representatives had received some training for their role, but under half (44%) of those who had been in their roles for one year or less had been trained. This poses a question about the extent to which newer union representatives are adequately prepared for the decentralised bargaining context that many unions now face. It also adds to the arguments for thinking about new modes of delivery and participation, discussed below.

Purposes of trade union education

Union courses aimed at representatives serve two primary purposes. The first relates to the role of the workplace representative, and this type of course has the aim of developing negotiating, bargaining and representational skills, but also of creating understanding of the broader social, political and economic contexts. The second type of course concerns developing skills to participate in the union organisation itself, ie political skills and knowledge. The TUC says that its programme aims to:

• improve the performance of union representatives at the workplace and in the union;

• promote an understanding of trade union priorities, including equal opportunities;

• develop personal/study skills and generally improve the confidence of all those who take part;

• enable recognition of achievement in learning through accreditation; and

• contribute to lifelong learning.

Women-only courses

Women make up just over one-third of TUC course participants overall. The TUC is a provider of women-only courses, as are some individual unions. Women-only provision grew in response to concern in the 1970s over women's under-representation on mixed-sex union courses and to feminist pressure on the unions to act to deliver on women's equality issues. Today, 12 of 35 unions responding to the University of North London survey provide women-only courses for members, activists or representatives, with up to 4,000 women attending the courses per year.

Women-only courses have become something of an institution with the trade union movement, with most unions now recognising the importance of women-only spaces for advancing women's equality. Although trade unions have made strides towards women's equality, the union hierarchy remains male-dominated. It is widely believed that women-only courses can help in overcoming women's lack of confidence to participate, and in bringing on female leaders. Women-only courses also help to build networks of women in unions, which in turn help to sustain women's activism. Women's inequality inside the structures of the trade union movement, combined with the necessity for unions to recruit more women members, is enough to warrant special provision for educating women members and activists.

Online courses

The TUC's annual conference in 1999 set TUC Education a 'millennial challenge' to reach trade union representatives who have difficulty accessing the service because of release problems, family responsibilities or work patterns. In response, TUC Education Online was established towards the end of 2000. A recent discussion document published by the Unions 21 network (UK0203104F) describes information and communication technologies as 'ready-made' for application to the education and training functions of trade unions.

The TUC currently has online versions of a range of courses, including training for workplace representatives, health and safety representatives and learning representatives, and a course on tackling racism. In 2000, it also ran an online course for union women officials and staff. It is estimated that about 400 students have so far completed online courses and the aim is to increase this to 5,000 by the end of 2004.

Given that the law restricts the right to paid time off to duties concerned with negotiations, health and safety and learning representatives, online courses in certain areas - tackling racism, for example - could also help ease some of the problems representatives experience in getting paid release for courses which the employer does not view as essential to the industrial relations and workplace contexts.

The online mode of delivery does not, however, fully resolve the problems of paid release. The TUC is keen to ensure paid release for online learning is just as much part of the negotiating agenda as day release for attendance-based courses, otherwise participants are bound to run into problems with regard to fitting in learning with other work, union and family commitments.

Commentary

Within the British trade union movement, there is a renewed emphasis on the importance of trade union education for reaching the enormous numbers of workers employed in parts of the economy where levels of union organisation and influence are weak and where paid release is harder to obtain. There is also greater recognition of the fact that many workers, women especially, have to fit trade union training around work and family responsibilities and that this requires more flexible provision. This indicates that the TUC and individual unions are moving away from 'demand-led' training provision towards using courses to achieve particular strategic objectives - eg involving a greater diversity of members.

Given the increasing emphasis on 'separate organisation' for under-represented social groups, women-only courses are set to remain a significant feature of overall trade union education provision. Online trade union education could have a significant role to play in reaching out to diverse groups of members. However, there are some concerns that the collective nature of union education should not be lost within online courses, because a sense of solidarity and collectivism will remain important for engendering the willingness to be involved in trade union activism. Therefore there are pedagogic issues which need to be thought through building on the early experiences. There is also the question of the place of online learning within overall trade union education provision. Online courses are intended to add to the total number of courses and course participants rather than replace the conventional classroom-based provision. If the trade union movement can address these two fundamental issues, online learning could be set to revolutionise trade union education. (Gill Kirton, University of North London)