labour education in canada
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LABOUR EDUCATION IN
CANADA
ASSIGNMENT 1
JOHN ALAN SUTHERLAND 2980775
6/5/2012
MAIS 650
DR. INGO SCHMIDT
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Today labour education is a term which has come to mean in Canada the education
and training offered by labour unions to their members and representatives (Spencer, 2002).
The key words are offered by unions. This has not always been the case of educational
programs for workers especially in Canada where historically labour education was more
oriented to a form of adult education (Taylor, 2001). Labour education before and now has
always focused on formal learning as opposed to informal or on the job learning in a workplace
setting. In Canada since the 1940s labour education has had several main purposes such as
preparing and training union members to play an active role in the union (Spencer, p. 17);
educate members about union policy, about changes in the union environment and changes in
labour law; to develop union solidarity, build common goals and share organizing and
campaigning experiences (p. 17). Essentially labour education has come to mean education
about the union.
The main distinction between labour education and workers education is that the
latter hadbeen used to describe all of the structured or semi-structured non-vocational learning
(Taylor, 2001) that adult workers undertook outside their places of employment. Labour
education along with terms such as union education, labour studies and workers education
refer to various types of informal, non-formal and formal educational activity among members
of the adult working class (p. 3). Union education specifically refers to educational programs
conducted by labour organizations for their members (p. 3). Labour studies refer to post
secondary courses and programs that focus on labour and the working class and includes subjects
such as labour history, labour law and the sociology of work (p. 3).
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According to Taylor (2001, p. 5) the term labor education replaced the formerly
used term workers education in the United States during the 1930s. This change in terms
coincided with the narrowing of the focus of what was being taught to workers especially
members of unions. The morphing of labour education into what was formerly referred to as
union education resulted from the influence exerted by the anti-communist and anti-radical
(Nesbitt, 2002) American Federation of Labor (AFL) over the Workers Education Bureau of
America (WEB). The AFLs desire wasto ensure that trade union educational endeavors
supported collective bargaining rather than attempts to change society (p. 5) which had been the
aim ofworkers educational movements. It has also been described as a business-unionist
philosophy in which labour education became mere training and indoctrination (p. 68).
In Canada the Workers Educational Association (WEA) only began to use this term
labour education as international labour unions, headquartered in the United States and
controlled by the AFL, began to set up locals in this country during the 1930s and 1940s. While
many argue that the real purpose (Spatz, 2004) of labour education is: to prepare and train union
lay members to play an active role in the union.to educate activists and members about union
policy and changes in union environment(and) to develop union consciousness, build common
goals and share organizing and campaigning experience (Spencer, 2002) this has not always
been the situation in Canada. This model of labour education, topics being driven by union
agendas, can be summarized as training in tools, issues and examining union contexts
(Spencer, 2002). All union education is characterized by a commitment to the development and
furthering of the unions organizational goals andthe objectives of the labour movement
(Taylor, p. 7). This is part of union activity which challenges the dominant power of employers
and their supporters on the one hand and building worker and union capacity on the other (p. 7).
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However prior to the appearance of large international unions on the Canadian labour
scene the vehicle for the formal education of working men and women had been primarily
through programs created and administered by the WEA which had been formed in 1918 (p. 5).
The Canadian WEA had been modeled on the British WEA which had been formed in 1903 by
reform minded employers andprofessionals to ensure that workers improved their
understanding of politics, society and economics (p. 4). The WEA in Canada had through its
workers education programs attempted to create a non-sectarian, militant, autonomous and
critical educational movement (p. 239) which could appeal to all parts of the labour movement
not only organized unions. As well the WEAs programs sought to link workers whether
unionized or not to available post-secondary educational resources (p. 239). In that respect
workers education in Canada prior to the 1940s was more akin to a central form of adult
education, frequently attracting more participants than other non-vocational adult education
formats (Carter, 2003). Union leaders perceived the WEA as a threat especially once it began
teaching trade unionists about trade unionism, collective bargaining and labour law (Taylor, p.
68). As an outside organization it could not be trusted to teach union members about trade
unionism (p. 68).
The Canadian WEAs coordinated strategy was one of connecting mass education,
trade union training and university level instruction (Taylor, p. 46). It believed it had an
obligation to analyze critically the place of workers in society and to emphasize the social
nature of education (p. 47). There was a belief in the WEA that the application of critical
judgment to social and economic problems would lead eventually to the elimination of injustice
(p. 47). This was similar in many respects to the theory of the social gospel championed by
politicians like J.S.Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas. The WEA believed its responsibility was
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to stand by working people and help them acquire the skills of critical judgment and it was the
responsibility of other bodies(unions) to organize and mobilize workers for industrial and
political action (p. 47).
Historically the content and form of education for workers mirrored the difficulties
facing working people in the workplace. From 1918 to 1946 workers faced a continual struggle
with management for recognition of their workers organizations. Strikes were the only way to
gain this recognition in the face of hostile employers and governments (Taylor, p. 17). This
situation changed following the 1944 order in council of the Federal government incorporating
the principle of compulsory collective bargaining in federal labour legislation (Taylor, p. 19).
Whichever term is used to describe it, the history of the educating workers in Canada
is cyclical as it intention has constantly sought to overcome obstacles to the growth of
consciousness-raising, grassroots education (Salt, 2002) among working men and women.
These obstacles are exemplified by universities and union establishment who attempt to exclude
the working class from access to critical educational thinking. Spencer suggests that labour
education should be essentially non-vocational, non-formal adult education with its origins
rooted in the tradition of workers education (p. 17). A perfect description of the program of the
WEA. If union activity including union educational activity is about challenging the dominant
power of employers and their supporters on the one hand and building worker and union capacity
on the other (Taylor, p. 7) then why do unions not want to educate workers about the broader
issues of society?
With union recognition strikes becoming a thing of the past and the use of unfair
labour practices becoming the norm for worker/management relations (Taylor, p. 19) the role of
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the Canadian WEA in providing a broad form of worker or labour education was marginalized
by union leadership between 1947 and 1951 (Taylor, p. 239). The WEA lost its place in
organization and provision of workers education, while individual unions and congresses
developed more substantial internal educational capacity (Taylor, p. 61). The anti-communist
hysteria that was a fundamental feature of North American society during these years permeated
the labour movement (p. 61) . Unions turned inward and concentrated on survival and expansion.
Unions neither needed organizations like the WEA to educate workers to think critically nor to
draw allegiance away from union leaders.As well social democratic union leaders and staff
wanted a political education that focused on support for the Co-operative commonwealth
Federation (CCF) rather on broader public-policy issues (p. 62).
For the next thirty years labour organizations in Canada developed and expanded
their own educational programs designed primarily to train stewards and local leaders to
participate effectively in the countrys industrial relations system (p. 239). As the position of the
WEA weakened, unions and congresses cultivated direct relations with universities, the
Canadian Association for Adult Education and similar bodies. In 1956 the Canadian Labour
Congress was born from the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the
Canadian Congress of Labour. This new organization, more powerful than its predecessors,
represented the typical union member who was a skilled or semi-skilled male, working in the
resource, manufacturing, transportation or construction industry (p. 63) .
Can it be argued that this formalization and professionalization of labour education
without providing a broader education on the relationships between capital and worker has
proved to be a barrier to future development of the labour movement (Sawchuk, 2003)? Unions,
seeking control over what their members learn, have consistently narrowed the scope of their
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programs by establishing their own educational programs seeking only occasional assistance
from the formal educational agencies (Spencer, p. 33).
The 1950s and 1960s were decades of relative prosperity and stability for organized
Canadian workers (Taylor, p. 97) with the result that union educational programs were
broadened and stabilized and new programs created within unions and the CLC. The Labour
College of Canada came into existence as a centre of advanced union education (p. 97). But
there was no return to the broad social education that was once the hallmark of the WEA. Union
leaders and their education staff focused on details of grievances and arbitration, collective
bargaining and contract enforcement (Taylor, p. 97). Union leaders and teams became
indistinguishable from the personnel departments of large corporations. The CLC even had a
political education department to provide union workers with an adequate understanding of the
CLCs legislative objectives, pertinent information on current political issues, an awareness of
how legislation is enacted, how various levels of government work, how the economy works and
information on the various political parties (p. 98).
As social and economic conditions deteriorated for workers in the 1970s and 1980s
and the composition of the labour movement changed (p. 239), new voices appeared in union
education to challenge the form and content of inherited practices. Environmental concerns
were reflected in union education programming through the introduction of courses on pollution
and occupational health and safety (p. 121). The most significant changes in this period were
the increase and variety of courses for women given the significant part being played by women
in the union movement and the workforce in general. This period saw a transition from a
movement interested in developing critical skills among trade unionists to a system providing
training for prescribed roles in the post war industrial relations regime (p. 143).
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The 1980s saw changes in labour education in response to a increasingly hostile
environment workers and their unions were facing (p. 193). Heightened government and
employer attacks on workers coupled with more government funding for worker education
brought about some changes in the focus of labour education. Many colleges and universities
established labour studies programs as a result of progressive and union friendly academic
staff, provincial government money for occupational health and safety and federal funding for
post-secondary education (p. 194).
By the 1990s a new emphasis on broad-based activist education was being expressed
throughout the labour movement, promising to rekindle the sense of an educational movement
that had been present in the 1930s and 1940s. Today there is a belief among labour educators
that unionism can be part of the system and still be a force for building a civil society (Carter, p.
298). Labour education is capable of educating union members to draw on elements of civil
society by generating social capital at a local level, engaging in strategic action within the system
and forging alliances with social justice movements (Newman, 2002). This is an important area
for labour education in order to allow workers and their unions to understand the global
economy.
Currently labour unions have taken a leading role in the preparation for the United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Peoples Summit Rio +20 (Nations, 2012).
There in addition to discussions on a new development paradigm, challenges for employment,
social inclusion and poverty eradication in a sustainable planet trade unions will also lead
discussions on sustainable access to food, energy, water, green jobs, and just transition with a
special emphasis on opportunities for women and youth (Nations, 2012).
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Unions remain the single most important provider of non-vocational social purpose
adult education for working people (Spencer, 1995). Despite the conclusion that union
education consists of three triangular contracts (Newman, 2002) (between the union, educator
and participant) unions have to their detriment sought to control and narrowly focus the content
of the contract between educator and participant at the expense of the working man or womans
willingness to learn. Labour education should be more like labour studies: impartial, open and
critical about labour in society (Taylor, p. 7). The provision and content of labour education has
begun to recycle to its roots in order to make the union movement more relevant to the working
man and woman (p. 239).
Bibliography
Carter, V. K. (2003). Book Review.Adult Education Quarterly Vol 53 , 297-299.
Nations, U. (2012, May 29). Trade Union Assembly on Labour and Environment. Retrieved from Rio+20
Portal: http://rio20.net/en/iniciativas/ii-trade-union-assembly-on-labour-and-envrionment
Nesbitt, T. (2002). Book Review. Our Times Vol 21 no 3 Jun/Jul, 38.
Newman, M. (2002). The Third Contract: Theory and practice in trade union training. Sydney: FastBooks,div of Wild & Woolley Pty Ltd.
Salt, B. (2002). Book Review . The Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education Vol 16 No 1 May.
Sawchuk, P. H. (2003). Book Review. Labour No 51, 332-333.
Spatz, D. (2004). Book Review. Labor Studies Journal Vol 28 No 4 Winter, 104-105.
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Spencer, B. (1995). Old and New social Movements As Learning sites: Greening Labor Unions and
Unionizing the Greens.Adult Education Quarterly Vol 46 No 31, 31-42.
Spencer, B. (2002). Labour Education: An Introduction. In B. Spencer, Unions and Learning in a Global
Economy: International and Comparative Perspectives (pp. 17-24). Toronto: Thompson
Educational Publishing Inc.
Taylor, J. (2001). Union Learning: Canadian Labour Education in the Twentieth Century. Toronto:
Thompson Educational Publishing Inc.