LOS SINDICATOS Y EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE
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| Available only in English | Disponible en anglais seulement | Disponible solamente en inglés |
What method will you use to make the most of these booklets? There are many education methods to choose from. Some are described here. Further methods are described in the Guides to the booklets in the other series ("Workers’ Education and the Environment" and "Using ILO Standards to Promote Environ-metally Sustainable Development"). Whatever method you choose, consider that involvement of all the participants improves learning. We learn better when we do things. Activities keep us awake. You may want to think about how to structure your training and education so everyone has the chance to participate.
Study circles are an excellent method to use with the booklets. Study circles are a special form of small group study. They examine a topic through give-and-take dialogue. A study circle might be organized by a shop steward at a workplace or by a union educator or study circle leader at a private house, for instance. To organize a study circle, you will need to do the following:
The leader of a study circle gets things started and keeps discussion on track. The same person might lead the circle each session, or members might take turns being leader. Leaders have special responsibilities: they must be well prepared; they will often need to find extra information about the local situation; they will have to encourage everyone to speak. During conversation, they limit their own role and try to create a positive and democratic atmosphere. The “discussion points” found in the different booklets can be used to organize conversation.
A workshop is often a big undertaking — and trade unionists may have other priorities for their time and resources. One thing you can do is integrate any of the issues discussed in these booklets into any workshop (or other union activity). Any of the activities and discussion points found in the booklets can be used. Use them as you like. Feel free to adapt them to suit your situation. It would help if the participants in your workshop have already studied the booklets. You should not try to use all of the discussion points and activities; there are a lot included so that you can have a choice of which to use. Try to use a range of activities that make use of different techniques, such as role play, small group work, field trips, etc.
Different workshops: different aims
Depending on what you want to achieve with a workshop you can adapt the size and time to your aims and objectives. Obviously, if you want to find out about a very specific problem or define a very specific goal then such a workshop will not take very long — an evening or half a day or one day, for instance. General education in a wide subject, such as health and safety at work, will take longer, perhaps five days. Some examples of different workshops suitable to discussions on environmentally sustainable development are suggested below.
Workshop to help assess the local situation If the first step in the process to promoting union policies on environmentally sustainable development is to collect information on the local situation then you may find it useful to think about organizing a small workshop and field trip around this subject. Two examples of activities that may help you in this kind of fact-finding or awareness-raising workshop are set out below. More information on the second activity on linking environ-mental and occupational health issues can be found in the booklet on "Environmental Indicators of Development". Ideas for developing an environmental checklist for use in and around the workplace can be found in the booklet "The New Bargaining Agenda" in the "Workers’ Education and Environment" set of booklets.
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A Survey
or Audit to Get Local Information AIMS:
TASK: Your group is asked to do the following:
Discuss and list the information you need to have before you start the audit, and what kind of equipment you may need during the audit. Exchange experiences in a workshop meeting when you return from the field trip. |
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Linking
Environmental Impacts to Occupational Health and Safety AIMS:
TASK:
You will probably need to put some kind of priority on the problems you come up with to limit your choice in the first instance.)
You may like to use the following table to help you organize your ideas:
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A 3-day workshop on trade union policy
The major aim of these booklets is to help you and your union develop its own policy and action plan on envi-ronmentally sustainable development. These booklets have been tested in several countries with this aim in mind, and it has been found that unions can think about their priorities and come up with a written policy and outline a plan of action in a three-day workshop.
Programme. An outline for such a workshop is repro-duced here for you to consider for your own workshop activities. Remember, this is but an example, but one that has been tried and tested and found to be quite effective.
Trade Unions and Environmentally Sustainable
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| * It is important
that the participants agree on priority issues at this stage. ** If the workshop goes on into the evening, then the drafting party may have to work on the policy after the workshop |
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Introduction to the workshop. If you want to base your workshop on the headings in these booklets then the presentation and charts in these materials (in the left-hand pocket) can be used as an introduction. The charts can be reproduced as transparencies for over-head projectors, photocopied as handouts or copied onto flip charts or a blackboard, etc.
Activities. From the proposed programme, we can see that the workshop follows a logical sequence from defining priority issues to developing a trade union policy based on those priorities, to thinking about how to implement the policy. The following activities may help to focus discussions.
click this image for a full page activity sheet |
Activity 1: Identifying priority issues concerning environmentally sustainable development AIMS:
TASK:
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For this session on priorities seven groups, if possible, should be formed, one group for each of the indicators as defined in these booklets. In this way, one group can consider environmental issues, another political indicators, a third social indicators, etc. If there are not enough participants, then some groups will have to look at two different indicators. These are, however, only suggestions. You will, of course, adapt them to your own local situation and needs. it may be that all the groups will want to think about all the indicators, or it may be that not all the indicators will need to be discussed. In any case, after the small groups have identified their priority issues, they will come together in a plenary session to present their conclusions to the rest of the participants. The plenary then has to agree on overall priority issues for the whole group.
How do we establish priorities?
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Firstly, a priority issue could be a
widespread problem that is the root cause of many others —poverty for instance.
Unfortunately, such problems are often the most basic, most entrenched, most difficult
and/or expensive to put right. They require creative thinking, in cooperation with other
sectors of society, but will have the most results in the long-term— and be the most
sustainable. |
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Secondly, a priority issue could be one
that causes the most concern. Most people will mention basic problems such as hunger,
health, sanitation, vaccinations for children, unemployment, etc. if you ask them what
concerns them most. Tackling a specific concern of the local community will be easier than
taking on national or international policies on biodiversity, for instance. |
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Thirdly, it may be a good idea to start on something easier and concrete, something that will show results straight away, such as starting a study circle to share information and experience amongst interested workers. Success in any project, however small, will convince other workers, management and community that conditions can be improved, and make it more likely that they will give their support for further, per haps more ambitious, programmes. |
Experience has shown that to encourage discussions in order to formulate a trade union policy on environmentally sustainable development and to avoid unrealistic goals and policies, it may be necessary to group the issues identified in the previous activity into four or five main areas of interest. This could be arranged at the end of the previous session or during the introduction to this session. Either way, the participants should be divided into four or five small groups, one for each of the identified main topics.
click this image for a full page activity sheet |
Activity 2: Formulation of a trade union policy on environmentally sustainable development AIMS:
TASK:
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The plenary session to discuss each group’s views should come up with some concrete proposals for a trade union policy. At this point each group should elect a person to help draft a final policy based on these discussions. The drafting group could meet in the evening if possible, or, if not, then after the workshop. Either way, the draft policy will need approval by your trade union decision-making body.
click this image for a full page activity sheet |
Activity 3: Developing an action plan and strategies to implement the trade union policy on environmentally sustainable development AIMS:
TASK:
You may find the following table useful to help you organize your ideas and to report back to the plenary.
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Based on this activity, a national workshop in Eritrea in 1995 came up with a lengthy, detailed action plan to help promote the policies they had defined in earlier sessions. Part of their action plan is reproduced below as an example.
| Issue | WHAT action to take |
HOW to carry it out |
WHEN to carry it out |
| Industrial
relations Workers should play a major role in development & growth of work-place |
Education and training for workers. Develop good relations with management |
Awareness campaign and change in attitudes. |
Already started in some places, continue in all. |
| Education
and training Training |
Leadership
training |
Train members of NCEW both locally & abroad. Cooperation with government institutions for training centre of NCEW. Organize workshops and short training courses. |
Some training started. Expand in 1996 |
| Cooperatives Awareness on cooperatives |
NCEW to undertake awareness campaign at base union level throughout country. |
NCEW and different ministries |
Beginning 1996 |
| Social
security Accident control |
Introduce accident control technology. |
In accordance with labour code, NCEW and inspectorate to carry out inspections. |
1996 |
| Double burden of working mothers | Kindergartens for their children. | Awareness campaign and fund-raising. | Start in some plants in 1996. |
As you can see, such a workshop can very effectively come up with a draft policy and action plan for union leadership to promote in future negotiations and tripartite bodies at all levels. At the end of a workshop, this may take the form of a table such as that in the example shown above. It should not take too much time afterwards to convert such ideas into a more formal written policy document. An example follows of a union policy and action plan which was produced after such an ILO workshop in Malaysia.
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Creada por AdT, Training Technology Consultants, S.A.R.L., Aprobada por E-MO. Ultima actualización: Enero 2000. |
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