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It seems that literacy is everywhere these days. But far too often, discussions about adult literacy and education are not about helping people become more active citizens so that they can work to eliminate injustice. Instead, worker productivity and the bottom line are the focus, especially when it comes to workplace programs.
But researchers at the Centre for Labour Studies at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University are looking at ways that workplace literacy programs can be developed for the benefit of working people, not the bottom line of their employers. The researchers are involved in a three year research project on Canadian unions and workplace literacy programs funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
The project's aim is to give union literacy practitioners and those involved in collective bargaining a deeper understanding of the ways that workplace literacy programs can be organized for the benefit of workers. Researchers will be travelling to different regions of the country to look at union-sponsored workplace literacy programs and to talk to their organizers and participants. They will examine issues around these programs, such as the types of organizational and administrative structures that work best for workers and their unions, and how partnership arrangements between labour, management, and government affect the way programs are offered.
To find out more about the project or how you can help, please contact: Tom Nesbit at Simon Fraser University, (604) 291-4177, email: tnesbit@sfu.ca or hart caplan, (604) 268-6591; email: hcaplan@sfu.ca .
Here's a new verse about literacy to add to "Solidarity Forever":
Literacy can divide us when the bosses get their way
But when the union takes a stand the workers have their say
We'll forge a new agenda that builds unions day by day
For learning makes us strong
Les cours d'alpha des employeurs pourraient nous diviser
Mais si le syndicat s'engage, nous pouvons avancer
Nous accroîssons la force de la collectivité
Ensemble nous apprenons