Effective organising cannot happen without critical analysis, research, capacity building and the ability of each union to develop responses to change. Education should help drive all this, says Alana Dave

The restructuring of transport has had a significant impact on how unions need to organise. The fragmentation of employment through casualisation, outsourcing and informalisation has both changed the nature of the transport workplace and the work experiences of transport workers. At the same time, transport workers occupy a strategic position in global supply chains, which are often fragile and time-sensitive.

How can transport unions organise, restructure and strengthen themselves to reach a fragmented workforce and take advantage of this strategic position in the global economy? The ITF’s Organising Globally programme adopted at its Congress last year provides the framework in which affiliates and the ITF collectively can identify targets for organising and coordinate union activities across the different transport sectors. In November 2006, an ITF education conference was held in Austria to develop an education strategy for Organising Globally.

Linking learning to building organisation

Many transport unions have begun formulating new organising strategies, embarking on organising drives, allocating additional resources for organising and setting up new structures. Education is an integral part of this process.

Every workplace problem, dispute or campaign – spontaneous or otherwise – can be turned into an educational opportunity to bring unorganised workers into a union and/or to strengthen the confidence and power of existing members.

“Active union members can be educators. They can reach more members, more quickly and more effectively”

If we are going to do effective organising, then we need to recognise and connect with what transport workers are learning and questioning through their own experiences of confronting changes and problems in their workplaces, sectors and communities. Thus education is more than the delivery of formal education programmes carried out by union education departments. Learning for workers happens in different places and spaces, and whether you are an educator or organiser, we need to link this learning to building union organisation.

There must be a close and dynamic interrelationship between the organising strategy of a union and its formal education programme. However, often the role that education can play is too narrowly defined. In many cases, the link between education and organising is interpreted as the need to train organisers.

Whilst the training of organisers is indeed essential, education should not be limited solely to this function. We need to remember that organising is not just about recruiting new members, but also sustaining effective, democratic unions.

Education must play a role in every aspect of a union’s life, building good, effective leaders and stimulating an active, involved and politically conscious membership.

The ITF education conference began to define a mandate for trade union education as part of this process of revitalising unions. The ideas below attempt to give a more concrete focus to such a mandate, and will hopefully encourage further discussion and debate in affiliates.

Stimulating critical thinking and action

The ITF’s Organising Globally programme aims at increasing the leverage of trade unions in the transport industry. This requires building a capacity for critical thinking and empowerment of transport union leaders and workers to intervene and bring about change in their workplaces, industry and wider society.

Thus Organising Globally must be accompanied by a programme of political education for leadership and members at a local, national, regional and international level, with the aim of developing new policies and strategies to fight for the interests of transport workers.

Supporting research, campaigning, networking and solidarity

For unions in the transport industry to take advantage of their strategic position, there is a need for an ongoing process of information gathering, analysis, campaigning and networking. For such a process to feed into and strengthen organising, workers and members themselves need to be actively involved.

An educational approach provides a structure and foundation for a cross-section of a union to identify common issues, gather information, and plan and make decisions about the targets and tactics for campaigns. It also provides the opportunity to develop campaign skills and capacity at different levels within a union, and to bring unions together with other organisations on a common set of issues.

Reaching different categories of workers

The findings of an ITF global research project on organising informal transport workers (see www.itfglobal.org/education/index.cfm) show that union education programmes must be specifically tailored to address the needs and problems of informal workers.

Sometimes union organisers with experience of organising formal workers find organising informal workers more difficult. Thus the training of organisers needs to address the particular issues, situations and difficulties of recruiting informal workers including: overcoming suspicion and bad experiences, dealing with union plurality, overcoming the opposition of the employers or authorities, motivating workers to join and finding the time and place to meet with informal transport workers.

Educating, building capacity and empowering leaders in trade unionism, trade union skills, politics and economics must form part of building informal workers’ trade unions. For example, the ITF-affiliated NTU in the Philippines runs a wide range of courses for informal transport workers’ associations aimed at consciousness-raising, leadership and skills development.

Building capacity

If we are to link education and organising effectively, then unions’ organisational capacity to deliver education needs to be strengthened. Apparent at the ITF education conference was the wide disparity between affiliates, ranging from those offering no union education to others who are delivering education on a regular basis. Regarding the latter, there are differences between those with structures and resources (including trainers), allowing for a continuous development of education, and those with weak or no structures and few resources.

However, capacity is also about perspective and vision. And it is clear from discussions at both the conference and other events that a large number of ITF affiliates do not have a strategy for education. A lot of union education is ad hoc and unrelated to a long-term programme of organisational development. In many situations, education is not linked to the core industrial activities of a union. It happens on the sidelines and is seen as an optional extra. In other cases, education is used manipulatively by leaderships as a transmission belt to pass information and/or decisions “down” to membership.

Thus unions need to allocate resources for education, develop education structures, train trainers and deliver education programmes that cater for different layers of the union. But more importantly, we need a trade union education strategy and methodology that builds a membership base capable of participating in and controlling the core activities and relationships of the unions, and reaching out to unorganised workers.

The mistake of linking the ability to carry out education to having financial resources is made all too often. Financial support for trade union education worldwide is in decline, so we cannot always rely on external support. There are many forms of low cost education which unions ought to consider. And we need to turn towards the resources we do have, but often do not recognise.

For example, active union members can be educators. They can reach more members, more quickly and more effectively. They can tap into a diverse membership. This is important – it broadens the base of who is involved in union initiatives, and who is in the upcoming layer of leadership. So it is an approach that builds democratic participation and organisational capacity, and it can be an integral part of union transformation.

There is an inspiring example from NETWON, an ITF affiliate in Nepal where organised union members reached unorganised taxi drivers at petrol pumps and played an educational role in providing information about the union, resulting in a significant increase in union membership.

The ITF plays an important role in providing opportunities for affiliates to strengthen their education work. Through global and regional education initiatives, the development of education materials on a wide variety of issues and the establishment of the ITF educators’ network, affiliates are able to share ideas, learn new skills and improve coordination on education.

However, ITF programmes cannot be a substitute for unions running their own education. Organising and education are inextricably linked and transport unions need both to realise their power globally.

A detailed report of the ITF education conference held in Austria, in November 2006, can be viewed at www.itfglobal.org

Alana Dave is ITF education officer.