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.

Download a copy of Reserach Paper 6 - Estimating the demand for union-led learning in Scotland ( pdf 617kb)

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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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Paper 8 Integrating union learning and organising strategies

by Dr Sian Moore

Research commissioned by unionlearn, suggests that unions are increasingly promoting a relationship between learning and organising at a national union level. The research which was carried out by the Working Lives Research Institute is based on a survey of national officers of selected unions and case studies based on their workplaces and branches.

It finds that unions are bringing learning and organising together in their departmental structures or developing links between separate learning and organising departments around specific campaigns. Some unions are also integrating the two at regional union level by placing Union Learning Project Workers in regional organising teams.

Another trend is to designate Union Learning Project Workers as organisers, to reflect how they are organising around the learning agenda.

Union education and training is also developing the link between the two functions, with learning reflected in activist training and organising in ULR* training.

The case studies demonstrate that learning has become a key strand in union organising campaigns, is helping to strengthen branch organisation and is providing a new path to union activism.

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Paper 9 The impact of the union learning representative: A survey of ULRs and their employers

by Nicolas Bacon and Kim Hoque; Nottingham University Business School

The fourth in the biennial series of ULR surveys was supplemented with matched data from a survey of the ULRs' managers.  This report presents the views of both ULRs and managers on the impact ULRs have had on the levels of employee participation in training.  It also identifies the factors that are associated with the ability of ULRs to influence participation in training.  The analysis shows that 73 percent of ULRs and one-half of managers report that ULRs have had a positive impact on some form of training.

Both ULRs and managers report that ULRs are more likely to have had a positive influence in increasing employee participation in training where ULRs are active, where manager value their activities, and where managers negotiate with union representatives when deciding training matters.

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Paper 10 - Learning representative initiatives in the UK and New Zealand, a comparative study

by Dr Bill Lee and Professor Catherine Cassell

The learning representative concept is now being adopted by unions in other countries. One such country is New Zealand where the learning representative initiative is relatively recent and therefore less developed than that in the UK but is already having considerable impact.

This research paper, written by Dr Bill Lee and Professor Catherine Cassell compares and contrasts ULRs in the UK with learning representatives in New Zealand through the use of case studies. A major difference is that, unlike ULRs, learning representatives in New Zealand have no statutory rights to paid time off to train and carry out their duties. Nevertheless, both roles are recognised in collective employment agreements. New Zealand also focus their work with industrial training organisations on job-related training, while ULRs support their members over a wider range of learning including personal development.

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Paper 11 - Unions and Skills Utilisation

By Francis Green is Professor of Labour Economics and Skills Development at the Institute of Education, University of London.

This authoritative paper by Francis Green sets out the need for greater policy focus on the utilisation of skills and how it is linked with High Involvement Work Practices (HIWPs). It outlines the relatively low adoption of HIWPs by employers and sets out the possible advantages and disadvantages of such practices for employees. The report considers whether unions have stimulated or inhibited the introduction of HIWPs and whether they have improved or harmed them.

The report describes the work of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills* and the Scottish Executive in developing strategies for the implementation of skills utilisation in the voluntary system. The report makes recommendations on how unions can get more involved in skills utilisation strategies and negotiate new organisational practices and fair shares of productive gains.

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Paper 12 Union Learning Representatives - Activity, Impact and Organisation

By Richard Saundry is Reader in International Employment Relations; Alison Hollinrake is Senior Lecturer in Employee Development; and Valerie
Antcliff is Research Associate, Institute for Research into Organisations, Work and Employment, University of Central Lancashire.

This report provides a detailed analysis of unionlearn's 2009 survey of union learning representatives (ULRs) and their managers.

The report suggests that not only is ULR activity increasing but that a clear majority of both representatives and their managers believe that it enhances workplace learning, closes skills gaps and improves unionmanagement relations. However, the main aim of the report is to identify and explore the key determinants of ULR activity and impact. The findings suggest that in addition to the support of their own unions, ULRs have the greatest effect within organisations where management have a clear commitment to union learning.

While the support of senior managers for ULR activity and the presence of workplace learning institutions were found to be influential, the single most important factor in shaping ULR activity and impact was the existence of negotiations between ULRs and employers. Therefore, the report argues that if ULRs are to deliver positive outcomes both for their members and their organisations, employer engagement must be reflected within positive workplace relations and a collective bargaining framework that explicitly recognises the centrality of learning and training.

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Research Paper 13: Co-investing in workforce development

Outcomes from the collective learning fund pilots

Collective Learning Funds* (CLFs) are union-led initiatives to stimulate co-investment in the personal development of the workforce to make such learning affordable. They have been piloted by unionlearn to test different models in different contexts. The pilots involved increasing funding and in-kind contributions from employers and providers, obtaining greater support from unions and enhancing employee commitment.

This evaluation report by the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds demonstrates that CLFs have considerable value to employers, unions and learners. They are establishing learning partnerships between employers, unions and providers, which are opening up learning opportunities in a number of workplaces.

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Research paper 14: Learning Journeys - trade union learners in their own words

By Cilla Ross, Leena Kumarappan, Sian Moore, Hannah Wood

This report explores, in the words of the learners themselves, the extent to which union learning facilitates equality and diversity in access to learning and precipitates further personal development, job progression and/or employability for learners. It finds that union learning provides a second chance for workers who have had negative experiences of compulsory education, addressing what they feel is an educational deficit and who may subsequently become 'serial learners'.

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Research paper 15: The context, content and impact of union learning agreements

By Mark Stuart

Unionlearn has commissioned research on learning agreements and analysed 281 learning agreements and surveyed 415 employers. The research found that the content of learning agreements covers statement of principles, commitments to partnerships, creating a learning culture and setting out the employer, ULR and union roles. Learning committees were another essential part of learning agreements with around three quarters making a reference to establishing one. Workplaces with learning agreements demonstrate higher level of employer engagement in union learning than those without learning agreements. The results of the research are published in the research paper.

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