Title: Union Roles In Workplace Literacy
Author: Stephen Michael Hensley, Director, Economic Development Assistance Center, Virginia Tech
Complete text:

Today's global economy is a constantly changing, dynamic environment that has a profound impact on how we work. It has forced our businesses to downsize corporations, flatten management structures, create flexible technologies, and, most importantly, begin developing skilled workers who can compute, communicate, and operate sophisticated equipment at high levels of proficiency. These "new" workers must possess the intellectual and emotional flexibility necessary to adapt to changing situations, to understand what needs to be learned, and to learn it without disrupting performance. They must be able to cope with ambiguous situations, make good decisions quickly, and use their creative skills to solve workplace dilemmas (Carnevale, 1991). Unfortunately, many American workers do not have the skills they need to survive this new economy with their jobs intact. They have seen their jobs lost to foreign workers, automated processes, technological advances, and productivity improvement initiatives like "re-engineering the company." These workers need help but, so far, our nation has not developed an effective means for ensuring these workers have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to succeed in today's economy.

The American Council of Competitiveness recently said: "... achieving a well-trained workforce should be the result of an integrated process that embraces developing occupational standards, improving school-to-work programs, continuing worker training on the job, and providing new government structures which offer consolidated services to workers, businesses, and training institutions." (Kleiman, 1993). This article contends organized labor unions can play a vital role in resolving our workforce deficiencies and that unions, companies, and government must rise above animosities incubated during decades of mistrust and work together to develop cooperative training initiatives. It focuses specifically on labor's responsibilities in this new relationship and examines labor's role in providing needed literacy and training programs. It describes labor's historic role in basic and workplace literacy training, lists skilled workers need in the "new" workplace, describes exemplary union-management literacy efforts, and suggests considerations unions must recognize when developing these programs for their members.

Since the late 19th century, labor unions have helped their members manage workplace changes by making sure the education and training they needed was available. Labor leader Samuel Gompers, during a speech to the National Education Association in 1916, acknowledged labor's commitment to lifelong learning when he said: "...education must continue throughout life if the individual is to really live and make progress...unions realize that education is an attitude toward life--an ability to see and understand problems and to utilize information and forces for the best solution of life's problems" (Sarmiento, 1989). Unions have traditionally advocated equal educational opportunities, labor representation on all educational boards, federal financing for public schools, and access to all educational levels for union members and their children.

During the 1920s, the Central Labor Council established "Labor Colleges" to provide education for union members. These colleges cooperated with local universities to provide college diplomas. In 1923, the National University Extension Association set up a standing committee on labor education. As workplace change accelerated, education and training began playing a broader role in unions' strategies for helping their members. In 1947, unions pressed passage of the G.I. Bill to provide educational opportunities for returning veterans and were later able to get the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 amended to allow employer contributions to educational benefits trust funds.

Educational trust funds have become commonplace in major collective bargaining agreements with a tuition aid program found in about 90% of all agreements. Unions have negotiated five types of programs in which these funds may be used including tuition aid programs that provide tuition support for employees, their families, and their dependents for study at educational institutions; education and training trust funds that are funded through employer contributions and support union operated training centers and colleges; educational leave programs that support union members during extended absences for educational purposes; educational loan programs that provide low interest loans for union members who elect to take qualified courses; and apprenticeship programs that provide technical skill training for younger workers. Companies have committed about $700 million to the tuition program but only about 5% of the eligible members are participating in the program (Wojciechowska, 1989).

During the early 1980s, unions vigorously opposed the regressive federal educational policies proposed by President Reagan stating, "What the Reagan administration has proposed is not simply a cut in programs but a reduction in the quality of education. Labor supports a massive national effort to provide quality education for all children and young people, wherever they may live, whatever their race or national background, whatever their family income. Only through such efforts can we realize our goals and objectives of providing equal opportunity for Americans to acquire the necessary tools for better life" (AFL-CIO, 1981, p. 13). Included among the reductions that the unions opposed were massive federal cuts in the basic educational aid that had been distributed to the states.

Unions also recognized during this period that government and employer sponsored training programs would not provide the skills their members really needed and began developing an unprecedented number of worker education and training programs. State AFL-CIO federations in Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin developed significant programs during this time with eight federations receiving federal funds for their programs. These programs were among the most innovative developed during this decade and often used actual job materials to help workers learn within a functional context (Sarmiento, 1989, p. 3). In some companies, cooperative company-union literacy programs were begun during this period and were tied to a broader strategy to promote job security and advancement. The companies and unions involved in these programs recognized that raising an individual worker's basic technical skill levels could also benefit the employer and the union. The individual workers gained job security as they gained skills, the employers experienced productivity increases and higher profits, and the unions continued to improve the lives of their members by improving their working conditions and insuring respect for their dignity and rights as workers. In these stable environments, literacy programs flourished and are now institutionalized. A limited number of these programs are described in another section of this paper.

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