The aim of this conference is to address a tendency that appears to take shape within the union movement, one which treats training as a nonstandard activity that is external to labour.  At this time, vocational training appears to be an issue that is much more a part of national trade unions’ agendas than that of local unions.  Often confronted with questions that require large-scale action (national, sectoral and regional) to solve problems covering a wide sphere of activity (program organisation, accreditation), trade union centrals have often delegated their representatives to sit on broadly constituted committees (government committees, schools, sectoral committees, etc.).

As the question of vocational training has often taken second place in the order of local union priorities, the link with the actions to be undertaken at the local enterprise level has not always been made.  Training has frequently also been seen as the initiative of employers that are seeking greater workforce flexibility and mobility through restructuring.  It is this question of levels of representation, union demands and actions that we wish to address during this conference.  The question is ever more crucial in Canada where the question of education falls under the provincial domain.  Should the national level be responsible for the establishment of national standards (programs, qualifications, etc.)?  How have other countries fared?  Concretely, we will examine different levels of action (national, sectoral, regional and local) with these questions in mind.

This year, the third annual conference of the Labour Education and Training Research Network was held at Université Laval, May 28-30. Attended by approximately 60 people, including international delegates, the conference was jointly sponsored by the Centre for Research on Work and Society (CRWS, York University), the Départment des relations industrielles (Université Laval) and the Centre de recherche et d’intervention sur la réussite scolaire (CRIRES, Université Laval). Amid a variety of significant changes to national training systems, unions deal with the difficult task of articulating strategies and relationships between the various levels at which institutions and policies shape training systems and practices. Introduced by Colette Bernier, Départment des relations industrielles, Université Laval, the conference addressed the theme of Trade Unions and Training: From Global Demands to Local Action.

Opening with a session on the union experience at the national level, the conference approached these themes from a number of levels and perspectives. Panels included:

Trade Unions and Training : National Experiences - Europe, United States, Canada, and Québec
European Union: Annette Jobert, Université Paris 10;
United States: Laura Dresser, University of Wisconsin;
Canada: Ursule Critoph, Canadian Labour Congress;
Québec: Gaétan Beaudet, Comité sectoriel de l’économie sociale

Union Representation and Participation in Sector Councils
Jean-Yves Charland (STEC-FTQ-CTC): Sector councils and workplace training: successes and failures in Quebec;
Gaétan Beaudet (Comité sectoriel de l’économie sociale): Vocational training and social economy: union representation in a workforce sector council;
Jean Charest (Université de Montréal): Challenges for union representation at the sectoral level;
Peter Suschnigg (Laurentian University): The Austrian Labour Foundations

Regions as Arenas of Union Action & Representation
Christian Payeur and Laurier Caron (CEQ): Unions and training in Québec: Binding national and regional action together;
Guy Bilodeau and Lawrence Cleary (FTP-CSN):  The Union Expérience at Forest Products Alliance Inc.

The experience with training at the local level
Peter Sawchuk (Brock University) and Tam Gallagher (CEP): Research and learning at the local level: Issues of process and products; ·
Diane Gabrielle Tremblay (Télé-Université): Community economic development and the planning of training provision: which institutional directions?

Education, Training and the Labour Market
Laurier Caron (CEQ):  Union Support for Public Schools in Québec;
Harry Smaller (York University): Vocational education in Ontario’s secondary schools: past, present – and future?; ·
Joan McFarland (St Thomas University, N.B.): Women’s access to training in New Brunswick; ·
Paul Axelrod, Zeng Lin (York University, Lakehead University):  The Value of liberal education in the labour market

Workshop: Union-university research collaboration: From theory to practice
Tam Gallagher (CEP) and Peter Sawchuk (Brock University); Joan McFarland (St. Thomas University), Mary Shortall (CLC),Thom Workman (University of New Brunswick)

Public Policy, Training Demand and Union Responses
Stephen McBride (Simon Fraser University): Devolution and privatization of training : Australia-Canada comparisons;
John Anderson (McMaster University): Public and private unions and training delivery in Canada; ·
Robert Sweet, Zeng Lin (Lakehead University): Impacts of Union Membership & Support on Apprenticeship Attrition

Copies of many of the conference papers will be made available on the Network web-site.

The Network wishes to express its gratitude to Denyse Lamothe, CRIRES, and Christian Payeur and the Centrale de l’enseignement du Québec, for their assistance in making the conference such a success. We look forward to seeing many of you at next year’s conference.  It will be a joint conference of the five Strategic Networks in Education and Training, to be held in Toronto, and promises to be very exciting.

Approximately 60 people attended the Labour Education and Training Research Network's second annual conference, held May 24-26 this year. Set against a background of changes in the Unemployment Insurance system, the deregulation of labour markets, and the devolution of training policy and programs, the conference theme was Unions and the Training Dilemma. It was introduced by Carla Lipsig-Mummé, Network Leader. The key-note address was given by Jean-Claude Parrot, Vice President of the Canadian Labour Congress, speaking on "Training and Canadian Labour: The Hard Questions".

Panels and presentations included:

Trade Unions and Training: International Perspectives
Peter Ewer, Union Research Centre on Organisation and Technology: "The Training Strategies of the Australian Union Movement"
Stephen McBride, Simon Fraser University: "The Political Economy of Training in Canada"
Winfried Heidemann, Böckler Institute: "Trade Unions and the 'Social Dialogue' on Training in the European Union".
What's Happening to Equity, Access and Training?
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Simon Fraser University: "Preliminary Findings on Access and Retention Issues Associated with the B.C. Island's Highway Project"
Alice de Wolff, independent collaborator: "Removing Barriers to Transferable Training for Clerical Information Workers".
Patterns and Possibilities: New Brunswick and Ontario
Joan McFarland, St Thomas University: "How Things Have Changed: Training Providers in New Brunswick"
Jennifer Stephen, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education: "Developing a Framework for an Ontario Labour Strategy on Training".
Globalisation and Employer Based Training
John O'Grady, independent collaborator: "Construction Trade Unions and the Strategic Perception of Training"
Laurell Ritchie, Canadian Auto Workers: "When the Road to Training is Paved with Bad Intentions"
John Price, University of British Columbia: "Training and Education in the Asia-Pacific: Labour and APEC's Human Resources Development Working Group".