Workers’ organisations and vocational training

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the interest, involvement and participation of workers’ organisations in vocational training is notoriously higher than two decades ago, if we consider their determination and rigour in dealing with the subject, and the different ways in which they participate. Strictly speaking, these organisations have always had as a central item of their vindications, to make education accessible to all the population as a mechanism to ensure a better distribution of opportunities regarding employment, earnings and personal and social development. Workers’ organisations have played a leading role in the history of vocational training in the region. Nevertheless, their participation has had ups and downs directly related to the political, social and economic circumstances that both training and trade unions went trough along the years.

Trade unions were part and parcel of the pioneering efforts in the region that resulted in the creation of a great number of national vocational training institutions, and continued to take part in their development from the governing boards of many of them.

This involvement, however, was undermined in the mid-seventies by a number of factors, mainly the detriment in several countries of public freedom in general and trade union rights in particular.

Secondly, the different manner in which economies of the region found access to international markets, through open trade policies, radically upset the characteristics of local markets and labour relations. Until then, the representative membership of those organisations had been urban, industrial wage-earners, predominantly male. After these processes the industrial sector began to lose weight in terms of employment; participation of women in the labour force increased, as well as new contractual arrangements, self-employment, informal work and unemployment. Faced with all these developments, many trade union organisations found it very difficult to adapt to the new situation and lost bargaining power in various ways.

In the third place, together with the above transformations new notions were accepted in the region about economic development strategies and labour and production management, that were diametrically opposed to the old productive paradigms. Although they strongly emphasised technology and qualification, they tended to consider training as something almost exclusively dependent on productivity and competitiveness strategies, objectives normally linked to the employers’ viewpoint. The fact often led unions to see occupational training as one more instrument at the service of capital, so that imparting it was more the responsibility of enterprises than of workers.

There is therefore a turning point, and what until the mid-seventies had been a situation of equal participation by employers and workers (although in contexts of strong State intervention) became a scenario in which workers’ organisations drifted away form decision-making in vocational training, and employers took the lead in that respect. This picture saw some positive changes in recent years, owing to a number of factors, namely:

• There is a new conceptual volteface that reinserts training in the educational scenario, bringing its players and arrangements closer to regular education systems, and propounding a new idea: lifelong education. Insofar as training is recognised to be an educational fact, it is also envisaged as a tool for building a modern and democratic citizenry.

• The emergence of new forms of organising labour and production that place knowledge at the centre of productivity and competitiveness strategies, have also turned training into a key element for access to employment. Although training does not seem to directly ensure the creation of new jobs, it is possible to favour equal training opportunities, and thereby attain greater social equity in connection with employment, earnings and personal and social development.

• The explicit tie established between training and employment and earnings in the new systems of labour relations, opens up avenues for action by specialised bodies of trade union organisations to unlock a situation in which workers were losing ground. Having a closer look at the current challenges and problems of enterprises and national economies, and knowing what role training policies play therein, provides workers’ organisations with a clearer insight –and consequently more clout– to play an active role at the various negotiation levels: enterprise, sector, country, even international.

This greater involvement of trade union organisations with institutional training, can be seen both in conceptual development and in the plane of action. There is a notorious increase in the number of specialised bodies dealing with the subject in various union organisations of the region; they carry out diagnostic studies and research, produce analytical documents and make trade union proposals in that connection. A growing number of trade union workshops, forums and seminars are organised to discuss training and its links with aspects of strategic importance to unions. Trade union training activities also deal with vocational training, and are beginning to consider the links among the different types of education and training.

Regarding trade union participation in decision making and implementation of training activities, there is a wide range of experiences, in varying stages of development, showing that union players are determined to play a leading role in the field of training.

The following is a summary of the different forms of trade union participation in training:

Trade unions´ participation in vocational training

• Inclusion of vocational training in collective agreements –already mentioned in Chapter I– has been to a large extent the result of trade union concern about the matter, and consequent pressure in negotiations, to have clauses ensuring access of workers to training.

• The same can be said about recent labour legislation, where the establishment of vocational training as a fundamental right of all citizens, is in many cases due to active participation and lobbying by trade unions.

• Revitalised trade union participation in the directive bodies of VTIs of several countries, partly encouraged by the sectoral focalisation processes of those institutions, facilitates participation by intermediate levels, like the federations of the respective sectors. This can be seen in the summit committees and liaison committees at the INA, of Costa Rica, and at decision-making levels in many vocational training institutions of the region: INOFTEP (Dominican Republic), INAFORP (Panama), INFOP (Honduras), INATEC (Nicaragua), INTECAP (Guatemala), SENA (Colombia), SNPP (Paraguay), INCE (Venezuela), SENAR (Brazil), and others.

• Instances of direct management of vocational training institutions, foundations and programmes by trade unions. Examples of this are, in Argentina, the Construction Training Foundation, dependent on the construction workers’ union (UOCRA), as well as similar undertakings by the commerce and services, insurance, metal mechanics and other unions. In that country, workers’ organisations that implement important institutionalised training activities come together in the "Trade Union Forum for the Integral Training of Workers", which acts in the sphere of the General Labour Confederation (CGT). In Brazil, three of the main union federations (CUT), Força Sindical and CGT, carry out training programmes both at central level and through their branch affiliates. These experiences have considerable weight. This is particularly evident in Argentina, where the vocational training offer by trade unions is the only one that has attained permanence and a significant coverage. In fact, and although CONET still existed, enrolment in trade union programmes was larger than in public training institutes.

• Participation of trade union representatives in tripartite bodies created by Labour Ministries, dealing with training, among other things. Examples are: the National Training Board (JUNAE), tripartite entity of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (Uruguay); trade union representation on the governing boards of the Fund for the Protection of Workers (CODEFAT) at national, state and municipal levels (Brazil); participation in the tripartite National Training Council, advisory body of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Chile.

• In Mexico there is another tripartite experience, also in connection with the Secretariats of Labour and Social Security and Public Education: it is the Council for the Standardisation and Certification of Occupational Competencies (CONOCER), which promotes participation by all stakeholders in the development of training based on standards of competency, and certification thereof.

• First instances of bipartite management of training in the region. Example: the Foundation for the Training of Construction Workers and Employers, in Uruguay.

• Participation in new bipartite bodies, regulated by law, at the level of enterprises: Joint Training Committees, of Mexico, and Bipartite Training Committees created in Chile pursuant to the Training and Employment Statute, which establishes that programmes agreed upon with the enterprise’s bipartite committee, entitle the enterprise to deduct up to an additional 20% of the expenses incurred, apart from training costs.

• Some central unions have also managed to develop institutional mechanisms that, among other things, do research in training and related subjects, provide conceptual information to trade unions on them and act to a certain extent as "think tanks" for workers’ organisations that seek to play an active role in spheres where vocational training is discussed and negotiated. Examples are: the Instituto Jauretche, of the Argentine CGT; the Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socio-economic Studies (DIESSE), of the three main Brazilian central unions; and the Institute for Higher Trade Union Studies (INAESIN) of the Workers’ Central Union of Venezuela (CTV).

• At international level, the two main regional trade union organisations, the Inter American Regional Workers’ Organisation (ORIT/CIOSL) and the Latin American Workers’ Confederation (CLAT) have recently highlighted training in current union discussions, both through their chief delegates, trade union training activities and awareness promotion.

This listing is only part of the examples that might be quoted in a more exhaustive description, but the instances included are proof of the great efforts of trade union action in Latin America and the Caribbean to take part in vocational training. This is auspicious and positive for workers’ organisations, but most importantly, it is also beneficial for training itself. Union participation helps significantly to strike a balance among the interests at play around vocational training, already stressed by the various objectives it has to fulfil. Among other things, trade unions might contribute in promoting integrating conceptions and practices to mitigate the risk of polarisation in our societies. This refers both to individuals and enterprises. Regarding individuals, to prevent a widening of the gap between those who have access to knowledge and employment and those who are condemned to social exclusion. Regarding enterprises, to prevent the consolidation of a situation in which some have good human resources policies and make flexibility and competitiveness a banner for everyone, while others do not invest, become ossified, do not modernise and are doomed to disappear in a competitive market, thus increasing the problem of unemployment.