ABSTRACT

The key purpose of this chapter is to explore the processes by which union engagement in learning at the workplace develop and how these connect with, and evolve in relation to, broader, and typically more established, structures of workplace industrial relations. As numerous chapters in this collection detail, union involvement in the learning agenda has increased substantially in recent years. This can be seen partly in terms of a longer-term campaign by trade unions to engage with employers around more productivist concerns and ‘occupational interests’ (Leisink 1993), and, more contemporaneously, an increasingly positive set of supports from the state (Forrester 2004). Soon after its election in 1997 the Labour government declared that it regarded learning ‘as a natural issue for partnership in the workplace between employers, employees and their trade union’ (DfEE 1998, 35). It has backed this position with a dedicated fund, the Union Learning Fund (ULF), for union-initiated projects around learning, and regulatory support for Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) (Wallis et al. 2005). The significance of these developments is a matter of some debate. For Hoque and Bacon (2006), trade union involvement in workplace training decisions is, in quantitative terms, limited, with little significance for employee outcomes. Others argue that union-initiated learning partnerships are contributing in qualitative terms to a process of new institution-building that can deliver potential benefits for both employees and employers (see Munro and Rainbird 2004).