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How do you include agency staff? Now that learning is an established fact at the on-site Turtle Learning Centre at Corus Scunthorpe steel works, developing learning and organising into new areas is a priority. The union already runs a variety of courses from Skills for Life through to ICT. TUC Union Safety Rep courses have also proved an extremely effective way of recruiting and training safety reps. And the branch plans to hold a union reps course. Unite – Amicus section has a very high density of membership on site among permanent staff, but Corus increasingly uses agency staff and the union is using learning opportunities to recruit and organise among these external staff. In addition, Corus employs some 50 apprentices each year and the union has an arrangement to see them at various stages, offering them the opportunity to join the union. The branch also appoints workplace reps to look after the apprentices during their three-year programme. Bill Gray, learning centre coordinator, says the union now wants to make inroads into learning among staff working for contractors. “These are some of the lowest-skilled who have the most difficulty with literacy and numeracy: we really do need to start looking at engaging that group,” he says. Bill adds that targetting literacy and numeracy among staff on site is also a key priority in the next phase of learning at the centre. The union is on the verge of signing a learning agreement with Corus, based on the proven success of the Turtle centre, and Unite – Amicus section will use this as an incentive to ensure there is a full coverage of ULRs organising across the site, says Bill.
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How can you reach out to migrants? Unite – T&G section has built learning and organising bases around ESOL courses for hundreds of mainly Eastern European migrant workers at two of the major bus companies in Manchester, First Bus and Stagecoach, as well as at Manchester Airport. This in turn has led to the recruitment of the drivers through both education and organising as the learners see first-hand the benefits of joining a trade union – approximately 100 new members have been signed up. Other benefits to new members include help with work permits, translation provision and housing along, with the day-to-day problems that can occur for migrant workers. “All this plus English classes provided in their workplace with an agreement for paid time off to learn has helped make the initial period in a strange country far easier for the workers,” explains John Lea, local learning organiser for Unite – T&G section.
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24 » autumn 2007
Organising ESOL classes has helped Unite – T&G section recruit dozens of new members
Manchester Airport was a further target, where a Unite – T&G section learning organiser conducted over 500 training needs analyses and helped recruit over 700 staff to courses. A new learning centre is due to open shortly at the airport. “We took on board the fact that the more people we can help, the more we can recruit for the union,” says John Lea. “In the short term, people are becoming members, some have become shop stewards and one member has helped translate for colleagues with disciplinary problems. “We have helped members not only with courses but also with all kinds of problems that they face such as housing problems or sorting out a mobile phone. All of this helps us organise and promote the union and give unions generally a good profile.”