Trade union pedagogy and cross‐border action

Abstract

In this article, we examine the potential of global union pedagogy to address the structural and political challenges of cross‐border trade‐union action. We do so by proposing an analytical framework that draws on labour relations, political sociology and education to explain educational processes and outcomes as responses to the pitfalls of global labour campaigns and the inadequacy of global and local labour institutions. We proceed to assess the value of our framework by elaborating on its different dimensions – framing, synthesizing, connecting and regenerating – in relation to the educational work of a global union federation, namely the International Transport Workers' Federation. We find that an actor‐centred approach that combines top–down, bottom–up as and horizontal processes of collecting knowledge from different contexts and making links between different countries, industries and parts of supply chains can help actors realize that their seemingly diverse concerns are essentially different manifestations of the same problem.

Understanding global union repertoires of action

“…However, an increased focus on organizational change means that these programs are now linked to specific campaigns or identified organizing strategies and targets (e.g. Niforou & Hodder, 2020). Senior decision‐makers within the GUFs emphasize the need to maintain autonomy, and now claim only to engage in capacity building activities that have concrete outcomes in relation to campaigns and/or organizing initiatives (Interviews 2013 and 2015).…”

The ‘indie unions’ and the UK labour movement: Towards a community of practice

“…It is somewhat surprising, then, that given the concept’s original telos , and the recognition of the importance of organisational learning as a prerequisite for union innovation and renewal, that these ideas have not been coalesced, perhaps due to the apolitical nature of the ‘turn to organising’ path the renewal debate took (Simms and Holgate, 2010). Literature that applies the framework of COP to trade unions is scarce, and confined to educational scholarship (Ball, 2003; Cooper, 2006; Creanor and Walker, 2005; Kopsen, 2011) rather than as a feature in the union renewal debates or in industrial relations literature more generally (although it is invoked in Martinez Lucio et al, 2009; Niforou and Hodder, 2020). There is a plethora of literature on trade union learning, with a number of studies on the relationship between union learning and union revitalisation (e.g.…”

Transnational Competence: A Transformative Tool? A Comparison of German and Irish Political Trade Union Education Programs

“…Among the vast literature on cross-border labor action, labor education has been acknowledged several times as an important factor to improving it (Croucher and Cotton 2009; Erne 2008; Knudsen 2004; Niforou and Hodder 2020; Novelli 2011). Like learning for democracy, workers and their representatives require the appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills to collaborate across borders.…”