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Unions key to workplace training, Georgetti says

On May 2, CIC President Ken Georgetti spoke at a Conference Board of Canada Symposium in Halifax, "Partners 2000: Linking Education and the Local Economy." The previous evening, Cominco Ltd. of Trail, B.C., where Ken worked for 11 years in the smelter and as a pipe fitter and was president of USWA Local 480 from 1981 ta 1987, had won an award for Excellence in Workplace Education. Here are excerpts from his speech:"There has been a fair bit of water under the bridge since I was a high school kid in Trail, B.C. But I can remember as clearly as yesterday the fellows from Cominco who would come down to recruit the guys who were not making it in school to go work at the smelter. They promised good wages and a job for life.

"I can remember as clearly as yesterday the
fellows from Cominco who would come down
to recruit the guys who were not making it in
school to go work at the smelter. They promised
good wages and a job for life."

"That was 30 years ago. Some of my friends have lost their jobs. The plants have been modernized, and some of the workers did not have the skills for the jobs needing new technology. It is a typical story of my generation, one that has been repeated hundreds of times over through the resource and manufacturing sectors across this country. Workers were hired for their strong arms and backs, and not valued for their intelligence or their potential to learn.

"What has changed at Cominco is that now people have a chance to learn. They have an on-site learning centre that offers a wide range of educational opportunities. My old local union, the United Steelworkers of America Local 480, has been involved from the beginning. And 1 am proud to say that the union has been central in framing what kind of training there should be and how it should be provided ...

"From a labour point of view, unions have to be important players in workplace learning. We are elected to represent the interests of the workers and need to be active participants in decisions about workplace education ... decisions about the design, the content, the mode of delivery, how programs are evaluated. Workers will be wary of participating in a program that is run solely by management because of fear of reprisals or potential threats to their job security. Knowing the union is there advocating on their behalf assures workers that their interests are being represented.