Labour Education in Canada

7/31/2019 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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the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the

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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.

Labour Education in Canada

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