Unions and Learning in a Global Economy: International and Comparative Perspectives (review)

Bruce Spencer has assembled fifteen thoughtful and provocative articles written by prominent labor educators from eight different countries. Although the main focus is on the developed English-speaking world, readers get perspectives on labor education from Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The book is organized into five broad units: Perspectives on Provision; Learning at the Local Level—Union, Workplace and Community; Building the Union; Current Challenges; and Reflections on the Future. Spencer provides a concise introduction to labor education by reviewing terminology, purposes and methods. He states the purpose of labor education is "to prepare and train union lay members to play an active role in the union . . . to educate activists and members about union policy and changes in the union environment . . . [and] to develop union consciousness, build common goals and share organizing and campaigning experience." Labor education is "social" as opposed to personal education. Spencer estimates that about three percent of union members per year participate in some form of labor education in most Western countries.

Spencer's taxonomy of labor education includes tools courses, issues courses and labor studies. Rather than engaging in spirited debate over appropriate curriculum and teaching methods, Spencer reminds us in the introduction, by referencing Michael Newman, author of The Third Contract, that there is no one "correct" way to teach labor education.

The assembled articles do not deal with vocational or occupational education, per se, but there are several interesting chapters focused on membership education programs that blend elements of job-skill training with core labour education. Part of one chapter describes Britain's largest union, UNISON, and its Open College, which encompasses labor education, basic skill training, credit for prior learning, and vocational opportunities for all union members. Likewise, the reader gets a good understanding of the Programa Integrar in Brazil, which offers union-sponsored labor education, vocational training and educational opportunities for the unemployed.

Articles do examine a wide range of issues that would be interesting and useful for any U.S. labor educator. Topics include the restructuring of trade union education, workplace organizing, the changing nature of work, building power for immigrant workers, training opportunities for full-time union staff, and the challenges of forging greater unity across borders. One article, "A Chinese Perspective on Workers' Rights in Labour Education," doesn't fit particularly well with the others, although it is one of the most interesting. For readers who have little understanding of Chinese culture and of the two strands of philosophical thought that have shaped Chinese concepts of rights—traditional Confucian values and Marxism—this article provokes deep questions about the transferability of "Western values."

The final unit, Reflections on the Future, has just two chapters. The first, from Michael Newman, is a thoughtful argument for unions to re-evaluate their central purpose and modus operandi and to explore ways to become key players in civil society. In the second, editor Spencer and Naomi Frankel summarize the main themes of the book. The authors end on a positive note: "As illustrated in this collection, labour education today is more diverse and ambitious that it has ever been in serving the needs of both representatives and members as they face the challenges of the twenty-first century."

This book should be of interest to many labor educators. It provides useful insights and detailed descriptions of new initiatives in worker education outside of the USA. It does deliver exactly what its title and subtitle promise, and it delivers it in a clear, concise and thought-provoking way.