Abstract

The trade union at the local workplace is considered the most important arena for developing the strength of trade unions. Contemporary changes in working life mean new challenges to the trade union, and especially to the local trade union units at the workplaces (Kjellberg, 2000; Waddington & Hoffman, 2000). Learning is needed to maintain the strength and the capacity of the trade unions (Bridgford & Stirling, 2000; LO 2002; 2004). Trade union-based workplace learning is also considered important for developing worker knowledge (Sawchuck, 2001). Swedish local trade union boards and representatives are expected to have the capability to learn on their own (LO, 2002; 2004). How do local trade union boards tackle the every day challenges and the demands of learning? To improve the understanding of learning among local trade unions two ethnographic studies of local trade units at two industrial workplaces were carried out.

In Köpsén (2003) the learning of an experienced trade union board was investigated. The board proved knowledgeable and authoritative in traditional issues, but failed to address the need for new knowledge and competencies. It was powerless to tackle unfamiliar and complex problems.

This paper presents the second study and discusses the circumstances for local trade unions to, on their own, tackle the need for new competence and demands on learning (Köpsén, 2008). In the study the everyday work within a new inexperienced local trade union board is investigated trying to understand what learning it shapes. What are the trade union board activities and what learning processes are generated? How do these activities and processes relate to the development of local trade union knowledge and local trade union practice? A sociocultural perspective is used to analyse the trade union board's work, the learning processes that are generated and how the board members' participation and practice are changed (Lave, 1997; Lave, Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1995; Wenger, 1998; 2000).

From a pragmatist perspective the local trade union board's attempts to deal with everyday challenges are interpreted as solving problems (Elkjaer, 2000; 2003; Wennerberg, 1962). It is shown that the board's different ways of defining the situation are of significant importance. Three qualitative different phases of the local trade union board practice are identified: the revolution, the renewal and the retreat.

Methods

With varied intensity an ethnographic case-study was conducted for three years (Hammersley, Atkinson, 1995; Emerson, Fretz, Shaw, 2001). Taking part in the everyday life of the local trade union board and using different methods to get to know and to understand the context of the local trade union board the intention was to get as close as possible to the perspective of the board and its members.

Results

The investigation shows the importance of access to and use of the sociocultural knowledge and resources outside the local trade union practice. The board's members' definitions of the situation are influenced by the trade union experience and knowledge that they appropriate in participating in other trade union practices outside the workplace. The study also shows the importance of how the trade union work is distributed as it generates different learning processes according to how duties are divided. Solving problems together with trade union members at the workplace and together with other trade union practices shape learning processes in other communities of the trade union movement.

The results of the two investigations of local trade union learning indicate that the demands on learning put on the local trade union boards are overpowering (Köpsén, 2003; 2008). The investigations reveal complicating circumstances for local trade union learning integrated with everyday work: everlasting challenges, complex problems with wide demands of new knowledge and skills, need of multi-contextual learning (Østerlund, 1997) and challenging conditions concerning the interaction with the employer such as unequal resources of knowledge and structural power relations.

The relation to the employer is more complex than a question of boxing or dancing (Huzzard, Gregory, Scott, 2004). It's claimed there is a need for another kind of collective engagement and support to the workplaces within the trade unions. Access to the trade union sociocultural knowledge and resources integrated in everyday work, and a distribution of local work in new kinds of communities of practice within the trade unions, will strengthen the trade union at the local level as well the trade union as a whole. The members of local trade union boards cannot be expected to, on their own, develop the knowledge and the power that are needed to tackle the everyday challenges at the workplace. Local trade union learning is not just a local matter. Power, knowledge and learning are interdependent.

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