Paper 1 Union learning, union recruitment and organising

B y Sian Moore and Hannah Wood

Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University Explores the links between union learning, membership recruitment and workplace organisation through the findings of a national survey of union learning and organising officers. The report finds that officers believe union learning has a positive impact on workplace recruitment. There is evidence that unions are working to promote practical links between learning and organising , although integrating union learning into core union business remains slow.

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Paper 2 Organising to learn and learning to organise : Three case studies on the effects of union-lead workplace learning

By Chris Warhurst , Paul Thompson and Patricia Findlay

Scottish Centre for Employment Research, University of Strathclyde Examines the relationship between learning and union organizing at workplace level. Based on qualitati ve research of three case studies, the report finds that union involvement resulted in additional learning. Worker participation in learning can act as a graduating experience, providing a 'roles escalator' that encourages members to become union learning representatives who, in turn, graduate to other union representative positions.

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Paper 3 A collective learning culture: a qualitative study of workplace learning agreements

By Emma Wallis and Mark Stuart

Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change, Leeds University Business School

Six case studies reveal that learning agreements are able to contribute to the sustainability of learning partnerships when they result in the establishment of effective workplace learning committees, and embed trade union involvement in the development of the learning agenda.

More employees participate in learning in workplaces which have a relatively even balance of power between employers and unions

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Paper 4 Training, union recognition and collective bargaining: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

By Mark Stuart and Andrew Robinson

Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change, Leeds University Business School Analyses the effect of trade unions on training provision in the workplace. Shows that union recognition has a consistently positive effect, not only on the extent to which employees are provided with training, but also on the amount of training they receive.

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Paper 5 From voluntarism to post-voluntarism: the emerging role of unions in the vocational education and training system

By Bert Clough

unionlearn/SKOPE
Traces the history of union involvement in training from the tripartism of the ITBs and MSC to the voluntarism of the Training and Enterprise Councils and to the present post-voluntary era. Concludes that the present system has been characterised by significant capacity building over training supported by the Labour Government, but that there is a lack of collective bargaining in the workplace.

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Paper 6 Estimating the demand for union-led learning in Scotland

By Jeanette Findlay, Patricia Findlay and Chris Warhurst

Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde

Commissioned by the STUC, this research paper is the outcome of the first systematic research on estimating demand for union-led learning. The survey of union members indicated a considerable potential demand for learning: over a third reported an intention to undertake learning. The research also indicated that the very provision or organisation of learning by unions may generate even more demand than is currently being expressed.

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Paper 7 - Migrant workers in the labour market

by Miguel Martínez Lucio, Robert Perrett, Jo McBride and Steve Craig

The role of unions in the recognition of skills and qualifications

This report focuses on a specific dimension of migrant work and experiences, which raises issues for both migrant and established communities. The labour market is contingent on the skills and knowledge of workers, and formally recognised qualifications play a vital part in relaying these skills and communicating them to prospective employers. Qualifications also play a part in the profile and identity of workers as they progress through the labour market. Increasingly, we see the argument being deployed that a modern economy and the 'knowledge society' need a more rigorous and developmental view of skills and understandings.

However, some crucial questions arise as to how, in a globalised world with increasing levels of migration, employers and institutions should acknowledge, recognise, effectively utilise and even develop the skills and formal qualifications of a migrant workforce. Given the challenge of social exclusion generally, and language and communication gaps in particular, and the exposed nature of migrant workers, how do the broad skills and experience of a worker from abroad become recognised? Moreover, what are the reasons for the lack of recognition?

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