The central proposition of this article is that trade union involvement in training is essential to ensure that workers are in a position to adapt readily to changing circumstances and bargain from a strong position. The context in which this proposition is advanced is with reference to the restructuring of the EU steel industry. The argument has two dimensions. First, trade unions need to engage with training and workplace learning in more direct and involved ways than allowed for by current partnership arrangements. This involvement is to protect workers’ interests, promote worker development and to develop jobs as decent jobs. Second, such engagement requires that unions consider their organizational capacities in two respects, within national contexts and across borders. The article employs evidence from ongoing steel industry focused research, which includes observations from the EU Steel Sector Social Dialogue Committee and its steering group on Workforce Development, Recruitment and Retention.
AnnerMGreerIHauptmeierMLillieNWinchesterN (2006) The industrial determinants of transnational solidarity: Global interunion politics in three sectors. European Journal of Industrial Relations12(1): 7–27.
2.
AshtonD (2004a) The impact of organisational structure and practices on learning in the workplace. International Journal of Training and Development8(1): 43–53.
3.
AshtonD (2004b) The political economy of workplace learning. In: RainbirdHFullerAMunroA (eds) Workplace Learning in Context. London: Routledge, 21–37.
4.
BaconNBlytonP (2000) Industrial relations and the diffusion of teamworking. International Journal of Operations and Production Management20(8): 911–931.
5.
BaconNBlytonP (2004) Trade union responses to workplace restructuring: Exploring union orientations and actions. Work, Employment and Society18(4): 749–773.
6.
BaconNBlytonPMorrisJ (1996) Among the ashes: Trade union strategies in the UK and German steel industries. British Journal of Industrial Relations34(1): 25–50.
7.
BielerA (2005) European integration and the transnational restructuring of social relations: The emergence of labour as a regional actor?Journal of Common Market Studies43(3): 461–484.
8.
BoschGCharestJ (2008) Vocational training and the labour market in liberal and coordinated economies. Industrial Relations Journal39(5): 428–447.
9.
ButlerPAshtonDFelsteadAFullerALeeT. (2004) High performance management: A literature review. Learning as Work research paper, No. 1. Centre for Labour Market Studies, Leicester University.
10.
Corus. (2001) A Review of Training Activities 2000.
11.
CrouchCFinegoldDSakoM (1999) Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12.
ErneR (2008) European Unions: Labours Quest for Transnational Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
13.
ForresterK (2001) Modernised learning: An emerging lifelong agenda by British trade unions. Journal of Workplace Learning13(7/8): 318–325.
14.
ForresterK (2004) ‘The quiet revolution’? Trade union learning and renewal strategies. Work, Employment and Society18(2): 413–420.
15.
ForresterK (2005) Learning for revival: British trade unions and workplace learning. Studies in Continuing Education27(3): 257–270.
16.
FullerAUnwinL (1999) Credentialism, national targets, and the learning society: Perspectives on educational attainment in the UK steel industry. Journal of Education Policy14(6): 605–617.
17.
FullerAUnwinL (2004) Expansive learning environments: Integrating organisational and personal development. In: RainbirdHFullerAMunroA (eds) Workplace Learning in Context. London: Routledge, 126–144.
18.
GennardJ (2009) Development of transnational collective bargaining in Europe. Employee Relations31(4): 341–346.
19.
HealeyJEngelN (2003) Learning to Organise. London: TUC.
20.
HeeryE (2005) Sources of change in trade unions. Work, Employment and Society19(1): 91–106.
21.
HeidemannWKruseWPaul-KohlhoffAZeunerC (1994) Social Dialogue and Further Education and Training in Europe: New Challenges for the Trade Unions. Berlin: Sigma.
22.
HeyesJ (2000) Workplace industrial relations and training. In: RainbirdH (ed.) Training in the Workplace. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 148–168.
23.
HeyesJ (2007) Training, social dialogue and collective bargaining in Western Europe. Economic and Industrial Democracy28(2): 239–258.
24.
HeyesJ (2009) Recruiting and organising migrant workers through education and training: A comparison of Community and the GMB. Industrial Relations Journal40(3): 182–197.
25.
HymanR (1999) Imagined solidarities: Can trade unions resist globalization? In: LeisinkP (ed.) Globalization and Labour Relations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 94–115.
26.
HymanR (2007) How can trade unions act strategically?Transfer13: 193–210.
27.
KeepELloydCPayneJ (2008) Skills policy and the displacement of industrial relations. SKOPE Issues Paper 17, Cardiff University, September.
28.
KersleyBAlpinCForthJBrysonABewleyH. (2006) Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. London: Routledge.
29.
KoikeK (2002) Intellectual skills and competitive strength: Is a radical change necessary?Journal of Education and Work14(4): 390–408.
30.
LeeTFullerAAshtonDButlerPFelsteadA. (2004) Learning as work: Teaching and learning processes in the contemporary work organisation. Learning as Work research paper, No. 2. Centre for Labour Market Studies, Leicester University.
31.
LeisinkPGreenwoodI (2007) Company-level strategies for raising basic skills: A comparison of Corus Netherlands and UK. European Journal of Industrial Relations13(3): 341–360.
32.
LévesqueCMurrayG (2002) Local versus global: Activating local union power in the global economy. Labor Studies Journal27(3): 39–65.
33.
MahnkopfB (1991) The skill modernisation strategies of German trade unions: Their impact on efficiency and equality. British Journal of Industrial Relations30(1): 59–81.
34.
MunroARainbirdH (2000) The new unionism and the new bargaining agenda: Unison–employer partnerships on workplace learning in Britain. British Journal of Industrial Relations38(2): 223–240.
35.
RainbirdHMunroAHollyL (2004) The employment relationship and workplace learning. In: RainbirdHFullerAMunroA (eds) Workplace Learning in Context. London: Routledge, 38–53.
36.
RoomG (2005) Policy benchmarking in the European Union: Indicators and ambiguities. Policy Studies26(2): 117–132.
37.
StevensJAshtonDKelleherM (2001) The developing contribution of workplace learning to organisational performance. In: CIPD and the European Consortium of Learning Organisations (eds) Workplace Learning in Europe. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
38.
StreeckW (1994) Training and the new industrial relations: A strategic role for unions? In: ReginiM (ed.) The Future of Labour Movements. London: Sage, 250–269.
39.
StroudDFairbrotherP (2006) Workplace learning: Dilemmas for the European steel industry. Journal of Education and Work19(5): 455–480.
40.
StroudDFairbrotherP (2008) The importance of workplace learning for trade unions: A study of the steel industry. Studies in Continuing Education30(3): 231–246.
41.
StroudDFairbrotherP (2009) Labour union strategies in the European steel industry. In: GallG (ed.) The Future of Union Organising: Building for Tomorrow. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 114–130.
42.
StuartM (2007) The industrial relations of training and learning: A ‘new consensus’ or a ‘new politics’. European Journal of Industrial Relations13(3): 269–280.
43.
StuartMWallisE (2007) Partnership approaches to learning: A seven-country study. European Journal of Industrial Relations13(3): 301–322.
44.
SutherlandJRainbirdH (2000) Unions and workplace learning: Conflict or co-operation with the employer? In: RainbirdH (ed.) Training in the Workplace. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 189–209.
45.
TarrowS (2005) The New Transnational Activism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46.
TarrowSMcAdamD (2005) Scale shift in transnational contention. In: PortaDTarrowS (eds) Transnational Protest and Global Activism. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 121–150.
47.
TraxlerFBrandlBGlassnerVLudvigA (2008) Can cross-border coordination work? Analytical reflections and evidence from the metal industry in Germany and Austria. European Journal of Industrial Relations14(2): 217–237.
48.
TurnbullP (2009) No lesser evil than divide-and conquer: Contesting access to the European port services market. Paper presented at Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law and Governance Workshop, The European Social Dialogue: New Procedures, New Context, Cardiff University Law School, 5 June.
49.
WallisEStuartMGreenwoodI (2005) ‘Learners of the workplace unite!’ An empirical examination of the UK trade union learning representative. Work, Employment and Society19(2): 283–304.
50.
WintertonJ (2007) Building social dialogue over training and learning: European and national developments. European Journal of Industrial Relations13(3): 281–300.
