TUC’s organising academy celebrates 10th birthday

The year 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the Organising Academy training programme set up by the Trades Union Congress. Recent research on the experience and impact of the academy’s graduates indicates that, despite some very positive changes within the trade union movement, it has yet to deliver the broad-based union renewal which was hoped for when it was first established.

In 1998, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) founded its Organising Academy (OA) training programme. Against the background of falling trade union membership levels, the intention was to encourage trade unions to invest in recruitment and organising activity, and to attract new people to work across the union movement – developing a core group of specialist organisers who could take a more strategic view of renewal activity. Additionally, trade unions were encouraged to expand into un-unionised workplaces, recruit under-represented workers and adopt approaches that emphasised member participation. If successful, this would facilitate a renewal of trade unionism across the UK – of particular urgency given the considerable decline in membership (UK0707039I).

Each year, a cohort of around 30 OA trainees undertakes classroom training and planning sessions, combined with working in trade union organising campaigns. Recent research carried out by the authors of this article and funded by the Nuffield Foundation reviewed the impact of 10 years of the programme.

What is organising?

‘Organising’ describes an approach to trade unionism that facilitates local leadership at workplace level, so that workers are empowered to act for themselves. Its purpose is to foster self-reliance and collective identity, as well as organising around workplace issues which can lead to increased recruitment and sustained workplace activity. Associated with this is a range of techniques including person-to-person recruitment, systematically identifying potential members and finding grievances around which to collectivise.

Training experience

To date, the OA has clearly delivered mixed outcomes. It has been extremely successful in training a cadre of graduates in basic organising skills, over 70% of whom have remained employed in the trade union movement. Academy graduates come from a more diverse background of skills, gender and age than their officer counterparts. However, training in more strategic skills, such as planning organising strategies and planning for the transition between the organising and representation phases of a trade union campaign, seem to have been less successful. Evidence from individual campaigns shows that, where trade unions fail to manage these more strategic aspects, it is difficult to sustain short-term organising gains.

Role of OA graduates today

The continued influence of OA graduates on the trade unions in which they work is clear, as about half of them are employed as specialist organisers and half in more generalist positions. Those graduates who remain in organising roles expressed frustrations about the generally low status of organising and the lack of opportunity for career development. Indeed, it is these pressures that have pushed many graduates to take on more generalist roles. Despite this, a high proportion of both specialists and generalists report that they use their organising skills in their current roles, and this reflects a perception that people who have been trained as organisers continue to have an ‘organising perspective’.

Tensions between organising and servicing

Examining the impact of OA graduates on the wider trade union movement shows clear tensions in the process of broader union renewal. Graduates are overwhelmingly optimistic about the potential for trade union renewal – despite the lack of clear evidence in this direction – but report tensions between the organising and servicing functions. A widespread perception exists in terms of a lack of progress in unions’ efforts to renew themselves, particularly in relation to emphasising the participative aspects of the organising approach. A lack of progress is also evident when it comes to expanding trade unionism into new economic sectors. Thus, the question arises in relation to which barriers the OA graduates have faced in this regard.

An unintended consequence of the decision to create specialist organisers is the institutional separation of organising and servicing roles. This causes perceived problems for organisers in integrating their activities and ideas within the wider trade union culture. This, in turn, has implications for broader questions about trade union renewal. First, because of this separation, many organisers perceive resistance from officials to the cultural change they are promoting. Secondly, the perception of organising being a lower status activity limits the potential for career progression and relatively few senior organising roles are available in trade unions in the UK. This means that organisers often have to move beyond their field of specialisation in order to move up the career ladder. While this is not inherently problematic, they are likely to lose an organising focus as they move into generalist roles. Given the long-term and intensive nature of expansionist organising work, if these specialists are unable to deploy their specialist skills as they move into more senior positions, the realisation of the trade union renewal vision becomes problematic.

Melanie Simms and Jane Holgate, IRRU, University of Warwick and London Metropolitan University