YUFA
External
CLC National Labour Education Conference Report
Ottawa, November 30-December 3, 2006
by Joan Allen, Vice-President Internal, YUFA
19 Feb 07 - This conference focused on popular education, with linguistic clarity as a central technique for its accomplishment. Popular education techniques, growing out of the work of Paolo Freire in his literacy education Brazil in the 1960’s, accentuate the importance of individual members’ experiences as opposed to the indoctrination of propaganda from those controlling the curriculum, in the case of this conference, union educators.
Two
days were devoted to workshops doing various education exercises on
equity, language use, membership apathy issues, and competitive
impediments to intra-union organizing.
Barriers to the typical member’s involvement were discussed. Some
factors members mentioned: the mystification of collective agreements,
use of union jargon, the use of rules of procedure to shut down
participation, sidebars at meetings, and patronizing reception of member
questions were all discussed as barriers to member participation. Member
motivations for getting involved in the union were discussed.
We also discussed the issues of successorship of union leadership, and the hesitance for members to run against the established leadership.
Examples of successes in labour’s influence on government were discussed, such as Pay Equity and the Westray Bill. Popular Education was discussed as a way of politicizing the unions, with efforts regarding globalization, war resistors, the CLC Better Choices campaign, the G8 demo, and efforts to bring students into political involvement. In Ottawa, 11 out of 14 municipal candidates who were endorsed by labour won their seats in the recent election.
My discussion table included members from CAW, SEIU, UPCE, ETFO, CEP, CUPW, UFCW, PSAC, TDSB, and the Newfoundland Federation of Labour. Some members thought less time should have been devoted to the discussion of equity and more to the effects of Federal cutbacks.
Much discussion ensued about the barriers to union collective education movements, including the history of protective attitudes that unions have about materials such as educational curricula, training manuals, exercises, steward training guides, writing of member manuals, and the like. For instance, CUPE trainers who a few years ago were told to guard their materials from other unions are now encouraged to volunteer to share their educational work with other unions.
Similar competitive conflict between unions was discussed in terms of organizing particular ethnic groups, such as the Sikh community, when several unions compete for their membership.
Part of the popular education mandate is to make organizing and learning dynamic and interesting. This follows from the tradition of the Theatre of the Oppressed and other street theatre. Creative ways of increasing member interest and awareness were shared amongst the different unions. Some members threw the globe around outside of their corporate headquarters at lunch time. One example was the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Transparency campaign, in which members were given magnifying glasses to take to management headquarters and search for hidden documents, and members dressed as Easter bunnies offered chocolate eggs to management as they arrived at work if they would reveal the location of secret documents the union had been asking to have revealed. CUPW held public debates about the responsibilities of Canada Post as a public institution. One union used the slogan “2% is good for milk” which might be appropriate for us as this is written.
We also discussed the need to get youth more involved. In my discussion group, the younger members, who were from the CAW and casino workers, had more optimistic outlooks than the older delegates on the waning of discrimination on the base of race and sexual orientation.
Techniques of education through the arts such as agit-prop theatre were presented.
Drumming circles, percussion groups, and renditions of labour songs in the evening workshop emphasized the collaborative nature of union work. Many personal stories showcased the nature of labour’s ongoing struggles and successes.
The
final day involved regional discussions and workshops on ways to
facilitate networking. A new Ontario list-serv for discussion of labour
issues was announced,
laboureducation@yahoogroups.com
“Education
is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
William Butler Yeats
Other Reports from this Conference:
Carla Lipsig-Mumme