date: Thursday 11 November 2004

Attention: Education and industrial correspondents/union journals/newsdesks

Workplace learning is boosting union membership

Trade union membership is on the rise in workplaces where unions are promoting learning and training at work, according to a new report released this evening by the TUC. The Learning and Organising report ‘Union strength through the learning agenda’ also reveals that unions enjoy a stronger standing in the workplace where they have reacted to the learning needs of the workforce. The perception of the union improves amongst all employees and the union-employer relationship improves in companies where learning reps play a strong role.

The key findings of the TUC commissioned research show that:

· 59 per cent of learning reps said that learning had had a positive impact on union membership

· 69 per cent of reps said the perception of the union by both members and non-members had improved

· 74 per cent said union-employer relations had improved.

Union learning reps are a new breed of union activists, with the same legal standing as other union reps, specifically trained to identify the training needs of their workmates and in the last year alone they helped over 60,000 employees benefit from training.

Launching the report TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, will say: 'Recruiting and organising are the key challenges facing the union movement. While the decline in membership has been stemmed, at the current rate of growth it would take around 240 years to get back to our peak.

'To face this challenge we need to be strategic and innovative. Union learning has been one of the success stories of recent years and is making a real difference to the lives of working people across the UK. This report shows the transformation that learning can make to the individual, the union and the workplace.'

The new report details how unions across the country have seen membership levels rise through tackling the learning needs of their members at work and in the wider community. Case studies including GMB, CWU, Usdaw, T&G, Unison, Amicus, RMT and Unifi explain the difference union promoted learning has made at a local level.

Learning reps in the report detail how new learning initiatives have empowered workers and given them greater confidence to seek promotion or deal with management. Learning is also opening up union membership to people from groups currently under-represented in the union movement, including women, black and ethnic minority groups and young people.

Examples in the report include a union learning campaign in Portsmouth that led to an increase of 649 members (around 36 per cent) at Unison’s Health Branch. In another the percentage of Usdaw members amongst the 1,500 strong workforce at the Littlewoods catalogue distribution centre in Lancashire rocketed from 54 per cent to 99 per cent, following the creation of an on-site learning centre.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The report will be launched at the Learning and Organising event tonight at Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS

- The event starts at 5:00pm.

- Journalists are welcome to attend, please contact Anjum Klair at aklair@tuc.org.uk

- All TUC learning press releases and further information cancan be found at www.learningservices.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access

pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

- A series of TUC rights leaflets are available on our website and from the know your rights line 0870 600 4 882. Lines are open every day from 9am-9pm. Calls are charged at the national rate.

Contacts:

Skills for Life and media enquiries : Dan Ashley T: 020 7467 1372; M: 07880 504 846;
E: dashley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (700 words) issued 11 Nov 2004