The importance of Labour education - Essay Example

The stability of a country depends on the working not on the upper (Chun, Hasan, & Ulubasoglu, . Wecan consider it the real foundation of a country. Without it, the whole house tumbles. Canada is fortunate enough to have a strong working class but that must be sustained and supported. There should continuous education and reinforcement for it to continue to thrive. That is why labour education is important. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work. I don’t think anyone would oppose when I say that labour unions and labour education is facing some tough times. Over nine million workers left their unions in the United States of America between 1990 to this decade and six million workers did the same in the United Kingdom in the same year (Bowles, 2008). Of course it is worse in Asia. With the exception of Japan, Asian countries don’t even have unions (Kuruvilla, Das, Kwon, & Kwon, 2002). Canada is way better in that respect but still not ideal. Many of the manufacturing jobs have been shipped to Asian countries because in Asian countries, labour is cheap and there are no unions that will fight for their right (Bowles, 2008). As jobs were declining, union membership did too. As jobs were declining, the reputation of unions to fight for the right of workers declined too. Add to this are government policies like high interest rates (see Figure 1). From there, the government and the economy changed direction to pursue new ventures including deregulation of certain industries and other policy changes. This changed the way businesses were operating and it changed their labour requirement. It was also the year when globalization started crawling the streets of Canada. It was good and it showed in the performance of our market. The working class started realizing that the internet, telecommunication development, and development of new products for information and communication can provide them the same possibilities afforded only to the rich. The working class is able to tap on foreign economies and to the upper class who understood what was going on, it was probably scary. The working class was becoming aware that it was possible for them to do better and get a better share of the economy. It paid off because for 30 years, Canada experienced growth and more importantly, working class empowerment, hope and belief. The problem was that businesses started demanding for workers whose skills can serve their new international operation. They needed to specializations and long-time union members didn’t have them. That was the most sparking proof that workers cannot afford to hope that for the next thirty years, they will have a job at their company. Their skill might easily be rendered redundant when new machines are bought that can do what they do, only better. They don’t get sick and they don’t demand for a wage increase. Where is Labour Education Now We are at doorstep of incredible communication technology growth. I know that some will say we are already in the middle of it but if you look at history, we are barely on its feet. The internet and all the technology that comes with it is barely thirty years old. That is a young industry by any account. And with its growth comes influences that are changing the face and trend of the economy and labour requirements. The large companies continue to dominate the economy and politics. It has been frustrating to the working class. A quick glance at Canada’s GDP and it will be clear that that the labour share is low, a quick glance at the employment rate and you know that we have a problem. Bluntly, the statistics show that the working class is taking less than they should. Through all these, it is the working class that’s making the sacrifices. Unions are being asked to adapt, change, become flexible. Adapting and changing means stepping back a couple of times to allow the big companies the space they want for themselves. Adapt meant making your dreams smaller and pulling your expectations lower while the owners are changing their houses to become bigger and buying more business to expand their ownership. That’s what they meant when they said change and adapt. That is also why Spencer (2002) insisted on finding out whether labour education could really stand a chance against the business owners who, in their own careful and sneaky way, slowly peeled off the power of unions and workers’ desire and courage to assert their right and demand what is due them. I don’t think that allowing gains to be taken away and moving back is change or adapting, that’s just abuse. In 1995, a bill was submitted by Mike Harris to remove the anti-scab law, car-based certification procedures, and put forward decertification efforts (Boyer, 2009). Since then, it’s like Harry Potter’s invisible cloak. It is able to operate without us seeing it. It’s been more brutal to some other countries like Australia and the UK (Stirling, 2002). Stirling said that Europe “suffered two decades of hostile attacks and increasing pressures for change… now emerging from this gloom with greater self-reliance and professionalism…”. However, he further emphasizes that those problems in the 70s may also be the reason Europe is having problems organizing their workers to unions. In Canada, it has been a little better perhaps because there are still policies in place that protect unions and union leaders continue to be active in educating new workers and re-educating old ones. I think it’s because labour unions in Canada. Canadian unions have nurtured a culture of fairness both in policies and practice which secures both the social concerns and practical benefits of employments to its members, it has avoided the stinking influence of corruption that marred the US and other countries, and it has been supported by other legislations (Lynk, 2002). This steady membership connotes the continued value that workers are putting on union. However, Canada, perhaps more than other countries, is a part of a global economy. To this day, we continue to bring in people from different parts of the world and that is fine. The openness is what makes us a sovereign country. U.S. also recognizes the importance and value of immigrants. Wong (2002) states that the immigrants is important in revitalizing the labour movements in the U.S. they were more active, more often, than U.S.-born Americans. However, this influx of people, globalisation and other changes that are happening in the economy and culture have huge impacts on labour unions and current labour leaders must move fast in order to preserve and progress the security of labour workers. Yes, corporations are big and powerful but they need workers. Yes, workers are poor but labour unions and labour education is what stands between the business and abuse. Unfortunately, it not as easy as ABC. As hard as it is to hear, majority of the labor leaders are old, the members are old too or are old fashion in terms of communication technology. Even harder is their refusal to learn new things and change their view on how labour unions are supposed to run their organization. There are very few labour leaders that have been made aware and educated of the new trends and the new requirements of the global economy (Peters, 2008). Many of these union leaders also don’t have the required confidence and skill in representing the workers to be able to negotiate for benefits and other basic requirements that are supposed to be afforded to workers. Labour Leaders Re-Education Ten years ago, Facebook didn’t even exist. Fifteen years ago, Google didn’t even exist. Ten years ago, a dedicated server means the whole basement of an office with computers so big, an entire town can live in it for a lifetime. Ten years ago, you need a four-year degree if you want to learn how to write a code so you can create a game like pacman or bouncing ball. Now, facebook population is bigger than that of the U.S. Now, when your car keys are missing and you ask your son, he’ll ask you to Google it. Now, you can have a dedicated server located in Chicago even when you are in India. Now, an eleven year old can create the fastest selling app in iPhone in just two hours. Information and communication technology is growing so fast in about ten thousand different direction and unions must stay two steps ahead of all these development. Trade unions leaders must re-educate themselves too in order to better plan what kind of training are necessary to offer labour union members, what is the best methodologies of training, and who to ask. Trade union leaders must take into consideration the impact of economic and social globalization and the ever shrinking earth. An educated labour leader can do more than just bargain for their member, an educated labour union can influence change in a workplace, a city, a country. Widener and Feekin (2002) reiterated the value of labour unions’ effort to reawaken the labour movement. They analysed what new trainers would need and said that they labour leaders and organizers need more support. Organizers and leaders need education too. Remember that this trend of shipping jobs to foreign countries started in the 70s, when automobile companies started moving their plants in Asia where labour cost is cheap and they weren’t required to share their profit to their employees. This trend has been going on longer, we weren’t just aware of it. Now, even research and development of technological and even drug companies are being shipped to other countries. Who would have thought that would happen? The core business of a company is now being shipped to another country. Now, they are predicting that with the speed of improvement in information and communication technology, India will become the next technology superpower. These are the situations workers are facing and labour leaders must be able to prepare for such a scenario. Workers are with labour unions so someone can protect them and protection isn’t just about having someone to run to when they are abused by their employers, protection also means having someone tell them what they can expect from the future economy and what they can do now to prepare for it. Labour Education on Collective Bargaining Since the boom of information technology, and I don’t mean just the internet, businessmen are complaining about the shortage of “skilled workers”. Being at the other end of the spectrum, it’s a little hard to understand how a world with billions of people can run out of option for several thousand jobs. I personally think that all employers want are options, more options, so that when they put out their requirement for a certain job, there would be 5,000 resumes on their table scrambling for one position. With that many options, they can bargain and give the job to the person who will agree to the wage they are willing to give. However, unions cannot ignore the fact that businesses are calling and it is a huge part of the concern of many workers. Forrester (2002) quoted British Trade Union Congress President John Monks when he said, “Learning isn’t icing on the cake or an optional extra for trade unions. It’s our business. It underpins our member’s well-being and future prosperity… “Union-run education programs are becoming essential parts in the movement and its importance go beyond just giving the union members new skills, it is important in strengthening the relevance of unions. The obligation comes in three levels. For one, once unions get a new worker to sign up, part of the collective agreement is to ensure that the workers will be allowed to attend union-initiated education programmes. The days of training should be over and above the standard leaves the employees are provided. This way, the employee knows that they are afforded the ability to and access new skills that will further ensure their place in Next, unions should be able to negotiate for employer-sponsored training. Employers nowadays are wary of sending their employees to training because employees can leave them anytime transferring the return of their investment to another company. That’s where the value of unions lie. If the unions are able to negotiate for trainings and re-education, workers will have more confidence in unions and the value of unions themselves will increase. Private service industries are especially notorious for not giving their employees education programs because it costs them more and they always claim they have very low profit margins and a lot of options in terms of job applicants. This is all the more reason for unions to make sure that they negotiate for it immediately. Many labour unions don’t make this a part of bargaining. Most of the time, unions will just negotiate for a big net pay. It’s a huge mistake. In fact, basic pay is the least of the concern of many workers. They are more concerned about health benefits, retirement plans, and less working hours. Recently, as international economy is getting more intertwined, labour education is going up the priority list especially for the young workers. They are more aware of the competitiveness of the market. They know that there will be more young graduates whose education are more relevant to new companies seeking to maximize new technologies. Miller (2002) cites the European Work’s Council (EWC) as an example on how efficient a labour union can become. EWC started by mediating basic benefits for employees but quickly moved into training their members and providing opportunities for education. He said that by 1999, EWC was operating on more than 1,000 companies all because of their efficient skills in lobbying for the rights of their members. Labour education is a new big role of a union, one that can help build a strong, confident, reliable, and independent trade unions that is able to adapt to the ever changing economy as influenced by technology. Holland and Castleton (2002) agree. They said that unions must recognize that the need for labour education is a result of “changing work practices and accountability requirements that have provided the greater impetus for workplace literacy programs, rather than equipping members to cope with the demands of industrial relations issues and enterprise bargaining. The power to educate workers and increase their market value is also equivalent to the power to influence a society because it promotes equality and levels the playing field among all workers regardless of education and demographics. Types of Labour Education New technologies are being developed by the minute and international economy is changing the climate almost just as fast. That is why labour unions must also make an effort to determine what kind of training or education they can offer the members that would be of great use to them. It is not enough that labour education should simply provide once a year training. Focus should be directed at developing a workforce and a union that can influence the economy. Workers Educational Association’s commitment to labour education was influential in different countries including Canada because of its sheer devotion to provide continuous training to all of its workers (Taylor 2002). Times have changed, of course, but Canada and the rest of the world should make the same commitment to labour education. Labour education should offer courses that will be employable in emerging industries like technology, communication, and others. It should also be done in different methodologies. Educational Websites. Bruce Spencer (2002) is a social activity. There are two ways of doing it. One is the traditional teacher-student set up. A teacher gives course works to the labour union member and submits the work all online. Occasionally, conferences are scheduled for live interaction. The other method is to get the content from users too. Users will be allowed to post papers, researchers, course works, and others. Yes, there will be some expenses in terms of quality control but the chance for workers to exchange knowledge is too good to pass on. With enough support and promotion, experts in different field may be invited to post and share some knowledge. Union members can post their question and requests on who to invite for an online conference or for a simple blog post. Members can then ask their question and the resource person can answer them. Education Network. Nestbit (2002) believes that emerging technologies should be utilized for distance and online learning. There are already existing educational websites that provide different kinds of trainings. Labour unions can form a network to give members access to any courses they want. Right now there are millions of useful educational websites. There is probably ten for every conceivable subject. It’s is just a matter of finding them. Imagine giving each member access to these sites and give them the freedom to choose what education they want to get and be limited only to the amount of time they can devote to education. Eventually, different institutions can collaborate in designing international curricula. Imagine the prospect of new technologies being developed in India is already being learned by workers in Canada. Distance Education. This is similar to educational websites but has a wider range in terms of courses and degrees. Distance education may be provided by actual universities that are offering legitimate degrees. One can take a quick course in website development and then proceed to take a full degree on information technology without having to leave their homes and taking time away from work. There are three ways distance education is implemented. One is to simulate a classroom class. Workers download the coursework and send it back also through the internet. The workers will take care of all the research, of course. Occasional online meetings are done between the worker and the teacher and face to face meeting is arranged if worker so requests. However, much of the work is still research. The next one is when the worker is already provided with different study materials and workers just supplement through their own research if they want. The last one involves some collaboration. Workers meet online with other people also taking the course and they do group discussion and group work. The goal is to share instead of teach, learn from each other and get help from each other. Harnsten and Holmstrand (2002) are Swedish researchers and have been studying the value of having research circles. A lot of their work is in Swedish. They endorsed research as the most effective method of learning. Laurendeau and Martin (2002) went a step further by using the model of the Quebec Labour College. They were devoted to providing education to workers with full time staff and funding that is funnelled towards the growth of the workers. Never About Hating Businesses Labour unions must make it a point to make the workers understand how businesses, government and workers must work together and if there is any chance for the labour unions to continue and if there is any chance for the workers to continue believing in unions a complete picture must be painted. Don’t teach the workers to hate the government for the taxes that they impose. Taxes aren’t to blame for the diminishing after-tax real earnings. We cannot blame the government for the workers not receiving commensurate wage increase in the last three decades. For example, not many understand that the tax cuts that government provided businesses is for the intention of stimulating the economy. There was even a full quarter reduction in federal capital income tax. However, the GDP doesn’t reflect new business investment. Several decades ago, businesses reinvest more than 100 percent of their revenue to new businesses. Now, they reinvest 70% of their revenue and they ship the 30% to investments in Asia where labour is lower. Our workers don’t see past that because labour unions don’t educate workers beyond their rights. Real business education must be present. Workers must understand the value of reinvesting, that we must not hate businesses, we want them to prosper, we want them to earn and we don’t want to drag them down. What we want is to share the profit with them. No, not in the form of performance based compensation but in the form of real wage increase and it’s the unions that will be in the forefront of these talks. Labour education must emphasize that it is never about hating the investors. Yes, there are businesses now that are earning more and workers are still not getting decent increase but it is that failure that gives unions its essence and vision. Labour education must emphasize that whenever we push for change and we negotiate for our benefits, it is not just about what we want to gain but what led to that whole negotiation including the general economic condition. This will allow workers to better appreciate the need for unions and the need for further education and the need to continue. It’s not just about policies and benefits or the next pay raise, it’s about understanding what will take us there. In other words, education should give them the confidence and actual ability think for their own and have enough that when they go to work everyday, they know what they are working for. Labour education shouldn’t just be about laws, policies and benefits. It should be about dignity, decency and integrity. There are those who keep on saying that unions are nothing but archeological pieces will be proven wrong. The Value of Organizing There is a decline in union membership in Canada. It can be argued that it is primarily because jobs are being shipped to Asia and other parts of the world where labour is cheap. Be that as it may, Canadian labour union membership is still declining in terms of percentage. Unions are simply not able to get new members to come together support unions and themselves. I don’t think it’s because labour leaders don’t have the courage or ability to do so. Surveys still continue to prove that Canadians still want unions. They still know that unions will represent them and that when they need to negotiate or if they have a problem, unions are the only ones that will help them. Cooper (2002) believes that union members must actively campaign for membership because it allows members to learn more about what unions stand for. When workers understand the value, it is easier to get them to organize and fight laws have been written to raise the standard and make it difficult for people to join. It shifts the power to business owners. The laws are practically giving executives an excuse to intimidate workers and threat them if they ever try to organize. I’m sure you all understand why many workers will favour their work over union membership. Labour education should be geared towards making union organization a goal and a necessity for every worker. Policies must allow every worker to freely make a choice on whether or not they want to join a union without fear of getting fired. For example, small businesses are given protection against labour unions more than big businesses. The principle is that they want the small business to prosper. We support that goal. Who wouldn’t want a small business to grow? When they grow, they provide more employment opportunities, they compete with others that may be dominating the market. The economy needs a free market, consumers need competition, consumers need to have a choice. However, we also want to protect even those that are working on small businesses and here, my previous point on labour education being able to teach a comprehensive view of the economy comes in. When both labour unions and small businesses are educated of the fact that labour unions themselves will support the growth of small businesses, new policies can be put in place. Unions aren’t barriers, they help the employers because without the employers, there will be no job and we don’t want a country without jobs. Labour union members must come together in coming up with new strategies to make organizing easier and most convenient even if it means negotiating with the local and national government to help us negotiate with employers for them understand. Forcing employers almost never work especially with current policies that give small business owners the option not to allow unions so a negotiation is more necessary. That’s why we need policy change, the law on our side. At the very least, every business must give their employees an option to on whether or not they want to join a union. Once that is in place, there is almost always no doubt that workers will join but again, current labour education must make these workers now understand why organizing is necessary. There is power in numbers and there is more power in number with knowledge. A clear example is the recent decision of the government to reinstate the card-based certification on construction workers. If union members just push a little harder, if most workers understand the value of card-based certification, the government will listen and policies will be put in place. Build Moral Credibility Labour education has been primarily focused on a labourer’s rights, benefits, and prospects. That is the creed of labour education. However, there should also be more emphasis on being the voice of labour morals. Labour education should also emphasize the interests of workers beyond their job. Ever since the inception of labour unions, it has been instrumental in controlling inflation, cutting taxes, changing policies, promoted rights and protected labourers from any form of abuse. Labour unions have been the instrumental in maintaining the balance of power between workers and business owners. Labour education should continue to pound on this but there must also be a focus on the reason behind this all these efforts. Workers that are just entering the market and old ones that are getting tired of all the broken promises of someday being at par with the owners must know that the all these fight and all these enough poured into fighting for labour rights, time spent away from family, all these are well worth it because it is the fight that keep the abusers restrained. The Basics Remain Newman (2002) raised the question on whether labour union is part of system or part of civil society. He argued that unions exist to protect the interest of the workers which is what civil society is all about. However, labour unions are also what convinces the workers to agree on a compromise which makes them a part of a system. I do think it is a necessary question but one that has been answered. Unions are both. They fight for workers and they bridge the companies to workers. As labour unions go through this process of updating their policies and programmes, there are some things that will not change and that includes the fact that employees need to be feel safe in their jobs and that is why labour unions should continue their dialogue with their members and strengthen their organization. Labour union’s strongest commitment should be about job security and labour education should be geared towards job security. This is not to say that labour unions must not think about innovation and progress but it must be grounded on no other purpose but to further protect their jobs for their dignity and their familys’. Graphs Figure 1: Interest Rate in Canada Source: http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/jfloyd/modules/evin.html Figure 2 Labour Union Membership Australia Source: http://people.anu.edu.au/andrew.leigh/pdf/Deunionisation.pdf Figure 3 Labor Union Membership in Canada Source: Statistics Canada Figure 4 Immigration to Canada: 1851 - 2001 Lynk, M. (2002) Union Democracy and the Law in Canada. Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada P. 16-30 References Bowles, W. (2008). The Obama Dilemma: A Mission Impossible. Atlantic Free Press. Accessed Boyer, M. (2008). Union certification: Developing a level playing field for labour relations in Quebec. Montreal Economic Institute Research Papers Chun, N., Hasan, R. & Ulubasoglu, M. (2011) The Role of the Middle Class in Economic Development: What Do Cross-Country Data Show? ADB Economics Working Paper Series Cooper, L (2002). Union education in the new South African democracy. (pg 37-49). In B. Spencer (ed.), Unions and learning in a global economy: International and comparative perspectives. Toronto: Thompson Educational Press. Forrester, K. (2002). Unions and workplace learning: The British experience. (pg 138-148). In B. Spencer (ed.), Unions and learning in a global economy: International and comparative perspectives. Toronto: Thompson Educational Press. 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Unions and learning in a global economy: International and comparative perspectives. Toronto: Thompson. Spencer, B., & Frankel, N. (2002). Unions and learning in a global economy. In B. Spencer (ed.), Unions and learning in a global economy: International and comparative perspectives. Toronto: Thompson Educational Press. Stirling, J. (2002). Trade union education in Europe: Emerging from the gloom. In B. Spencer's , Unions and learning in a global economy : International and comparative perspectives (pg 26-36). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing, Inc. Taylor , J. (2002). Union E-learning in Canada. (Pg 149-157) In B. Spencer (ed.), Unions and learning in a global economy: International and comparative perspectives. Toronto: Thompson Educational Press. Widenor, M., & Feekin, L (2002). Organizer training in two hemispheres: The experience in the USA and Australia. (pg 100-111). In B. 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