How should Trade Union Education be delivered? On-line Learning rocketed upwards during the pandemic allowing thousands more Union members to learn at home rather than travelling to a College or other venue. This helped large numbers of eg women and parents. Yet many others feel that face to face Learning is stronger, allowing a shared sense of community and helping new Reps grow confidence. Some Union learners don’t like classrooms (they may not have positive memories), should unions expand e-learning and make more use of their own Offices? Some Union staff and activists are trained to act as Tutors, others use the pedagogical, expertise of e.g. FE staff. Some unions largely deliver their own Education programmes. Others work closely with providers such as Colleges, Universities, the WEA, subject specialists or new organisations like The Learning Curve. Should the TUC coordinate training? And channel funding? Trade Union Education methods are famously Lerner centred, democratic and collective; how best should that tradition be developed?
Speakers include: Sue Ferns, Senior Deputy General Secretary, Prospect and Professor Mark Stuart, Leeds University Business School and expert on the Union Learning Fund.
Chair: Tom Wilson, former Head of Unionlearn
IHR Seminar Series: History & Policy Trade Union Forum
This seminar will look at what content should be covered by Trade Union Education, Unions have limited resources and need to choose. A broad range of subjects including e.g. Green issues or more on equalities - or a focus on the skills that Reps need? Should unions provide professional training for members or is that the job of employers? Should unions simply provide Learning in whatever subjects members want? How detailed and extensive should training be? Members with limited time may want a short one hour session on one topic but should such modules be assembled into a larger programme? How should unions build or borrow or share their learning resources? Should Reps be generic or be encouraged to develop specialisms in eg Health and Safety or Equalities? Should learning conform to external accreditation rules or should Unions develop their own standards? Different unions may have different answers to these questions but some argue for a Union wide consensus.
Speakers include:
Chair: Sarah Veale, former Head of Equality and Employment Rights, TUC
IHR Seminar Series: History & Policy Trade Union Forum
Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, New Labour was in power longer than any previous Labour government. However, its economic and employment policies have remained controversial. These include ‘third way’ concepts like the enabling state and flexible labour markets, as well as a new emphasis on individual employment rights and the National Minimum Wage. A decade on, this event explores some policy lessons from the New Labour experience, read in three historical contexts: the prior experience of Thatcherism and the UK’s transition to a service economy; the earlier history of Labour in power; and wider trends in European social democracy. The day will also consider New Labour’s influence on the Conservative-led governments that followed and current political debates about work, from a variety of perspectives.
0:00 Welcome | Philip Murph (Director of History & Policy, Institute of Historical Research)
5:11 Session 1 | New Labour at work: framing the debate
Chair: John Edmonds (former Gen Sec GMB)
• Peter Ackers (Industrial Relations historian)
21:09 Session 2 | Witness Panel: New Labour’s contested legacy
Chair: Helen Hague (journalist)
• Jon Cruddas (Labour MP)
• John Monks (former Gen Sec TUC & ETUC)
2:00:13 Session 3 | After New Labour: wider policy lessons
Chair: Helen Hague (journalist)
• Anne-Marie Greene (Industrial Relations academic)
• Sarah Veale (former TUC head Equality and Employment Rights)
3:10:25 Session 4 | After New Labour: wider policy lessons
Chair: Philip Murphy (Director of History & Policy, Institute of Historical Research)
• Patrick Diamond (Historian of New Labour)
• Adrian Williamson (Historian of post-war Britain)
Change in Trade Unions by Roger Undy, Bill McCarthy, Valerie Ellis and Tony Halmos was originally published in 1981 just after the end of the strongest decade for the UK trade union movement, with membership reaching its height in 1979. It is being republished in December 2022, which provides an ideal opportunity to revisit its findings on how trade unions really operated then and what are the lessons for today’s very different industrial relations scene. It also provides a full opportunity to review the approach at that time to the study of trade unions and industrial relations by what came to be called the "Oxford School". Two of the four authors of the 1981 book will be on the panel, together with a trade union leader from the time and a specialist in the work of the "Oxford School" of industrial relations.
Speakers:
Recorded on 7 March 2023 in Seante House, University of London.
Are the British Royal Family the real enemies of history? Over the decades they have actively suppressed uncomfortable narratives about themselves. Hundreds of files in the national and royal archives remain inaccessible to the general public, files that many would argue are of public interest. The result? Holes in our country's history.
These are some of the conclusions from the team at the magazine Index on Censorship, who carried out an investigation into royal historical censorship for their Winter issue. As part of the launch of the magazine, a panel of speakers will discuss the findings alongside their experiences of trying to access historical archives. This will be a lively discussion and one with heightened importance following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September and ahead of the coronation of Charles III in the spring.
Speaking on the panel will be:
The event will be chaired by Jemimah Steinfeld, editor-in-chief at Index on Censorship.
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