For the first time in ITF history an education conference was convened from the 28-30 November 2006 in Vienna, Austria.

The conference formed part of a global educators’ project supported by the solidarity support organisation LO-TCO in Sweden. It was hosted together with GdEÖ, the ITF’s railway affiliate in Austria.

Through a combination of traditional conference plenary sessions, group work, case studies and panel discussions, delegates representing 55 unions from 39 countries discussed ways of developing education as a tool to build membership participation, democracy and political awareness.

Delegates agreed that union education had to explore new strategies on organising, bargaining and campaigning and discussed the need to stimulate critical thinking around the challenges ahead.

The conference focused on the current and future role of trade union education in strengthening the international labour movement and looked at education strategies to build industrial strength within and across different transport sectors.

* * The conference report can now be downloaded, see the end of the page. 
*** A special conference edition of the Education Bulletin at the end of the page.

Languages

The conference had interpretation in three languages: English, French and Spanish. A report of the conference summary and conclusions is available in these languages, see the end of this page.

Venue

The conference was held at BAD VÖSLAU Education Centre, Johann-Strauß-Straße 2, 2540 Bad Vöslau, Austria.