Union education

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Trade union education is youth and adult education that is provided by trade unions . Trade union education is understood as part of the organizational work of trade unions and aims to expand personal, operational and social capacity to act. Trade union education is explicitly understood as political education .

General information on trade union education

History of Union Education

A class of the "Fritz Heckert" union college of the FDGB ( GDR ). In the post-war years, the DGB unions had often organized their educational work through classrooms and / or in the form of school education.
One of the historical pillars of trade union education is dealing with right-wing extremism . Here using the example of the DGB Jugend München in connection with the commemorative event for the Oktoberfest attack in 1980 by right-wing extremist Gundolf Köhler .
Guide to trade union youth education from the DGB (1973)

Trade unions saw themselves as workers' education associations from the start . In this respect, with the beginnings of the labor movement there was also a desire for workers' education . In addition, the desire for educational work in the sense of a general education as well as the desire to develop class consciousness came very quickly . This education can roughly be divided into the period of Vormärz ( until 1848 ), the period from 1848 up to the Socialist Laws and finally the period up to the First World War ( from 1848 ). During the Weimar period , i.e. from 1919 onwards , the trade union education work of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) was expanded to include trade union education. However, like the other unions at the time, it remains bound by party politics.

After the break in civilization caused by the fascist regime, trade union education was systematically rebuilt from 1945 onwards. It initially differs in terms of both the content and the specific structures according to the different occupation zones. In West Germany, the trade union education was denazification and the idea of re-education obligation and made since the clarification of the crimes of the Nazi regime and the fight against neo-fascism as one of its pillars. With the consolidation and stabilization of democracy in the FRG, the emphasis shifted to “political employee education” in the sense of union goals.

In other respects, too, the trade union education work of the DGB trade unions ( unitary trade union ) in the old federal states followed the developments in the Federal Republic of Germany in post-war history and the various questions that arose with regard to education in general. The trade union education work differs considerably between the individual unions. In the former Soviet occupation zone, the unions in the form of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) were founded in a different structure. This also resulted in different conditions and consequences for trade union education work in East Germany.

Goal and purpose of trade union education

Since trade union educational work always has to be related to articulating and enforcing the interests of dependent employees, it is often in conflict with the trade unions as an organization. The various trade unions and the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) each have their own interpretation of society and its development. But also strategies for finding demands and their implementation. In principle, trade union education work is also a good means for this. But trade union decisions (the so-called “decision-making position”) also represent “temporary agreements”. In this context, the question is “how does the function of trade union education work in this discussion and decision-making process certainly".

The relationship to the organization

The dispute over pedagogical concepts in trade union education was always also a dispute about the question of what purpose trade union education should or must pursue. This can be shown very well in the discussion about the "guideline approach" (as for example at IG Metall) in contrast to the so-called "experience approach" (as at the then DGB Federal Youth School Oberursel ) in the 1980s. A discussion that was very bitter not only due to misunderstandings.

  • The guideline approach defined “learning objectives, learning content, learning steps and materials in a guideline”, which meant that the desired course could be described in detail. Combined with a clear planning optimism regarding the course of the seminars, a closed curriculum was developed, which was presented in step-by-step concepts.
  • The experience approach , on the other hand, was based on the assumption that “awareness-raising must directly address the diverse and contradicting experiences and conditions of the participants”. It went back very directly to Oskar Nigt's book “Sociological Fantasy and Exemplary Learning” and, in addition to purely cognitive learning, should also be able to make “all the fears, defense strategies, psychological barriers and blockages that make interest-conscious action difficult and impossible” a topic.

The suitability of both approaches has been repeatedly put to the test in the reality of trade union education. Above all, however, in both cases it was not clear how far one could and should think within the framework of trade union policy seminars. In the respective learning terms behind the concepts, the relationship to the trade unions as an organization was up for debate. Probably an important reason why these debates were sometimes extremely heated.

Target groups of trade union education

The content to be conveyed differs depending on the target group. Here are the results worked out in groups that are important for company interest groups.
The methods used differ rather in the self-image of the speakers employed.

By the mid-1990s at the latest, another heated internal trade union discussion about the meaning and tasks of trade union education work broke out. This time around the question of which target groups the unions typically address with their educational work. As in the 1980s, this went hand in hand with the debate about new methods (for example future workshops or communication workshops ) and the competencies of the teachers (here above all “social skills” ) within the framework of trade union educational work. Since then, at least two very disparate positions have stood opposite one another:

  1. Union educational work primarily or exclusively serves to attract union officials.
  2. Union educational work is generally obligated to the members and also represents preparatory work on local politics or convincing citizens in general.

This is a conflict of beliefs or ideologies , because both positions cannot be empirically proven (without further ado).

  1. The first position is not because the participants come to trade union training events with a prior understanding or a positive general mood.
  2. The second position is not because a positive basic mood for union goals and positions cannot be captured by their educational work.

This conflict never came to an end. It initially ended abruptly with the reunification . The primary task of trade union education was to transfer the western model more or less uncritically to eastern Germany.

With the training of company training supervisors from 1965 - every company with 100 or more employees should have a training supervisor - the education department under Heinz Dürrbeck tried to strengthen IG Metall's shop stewards and at the same time reached into the latent conflict and tension between union shop stewards, works councils and Labor directors a. After disputes, the educational supervisor project was abandoned in 1972.

Structure of the educational work of the trade unions

In Germany , the cross-sector and political trade union educational work is organized by the DGB primarily through the various DGB educational institutions and its regional associations ( DGB regions ) as well as the district and city associations. Trade union education work is mainly organized by the individual trade unions for specific sectors and for company interest groups. Various union-related institutions such as Work and Life , the educational establishments in the ver.di union (as well as ver.di GPB, ver.di b + b ) and some folk high schools carry out union educational work. And finally, the DGB youth , which includes the youth organizations of the individual trade unions, is to be mentioned as the institution of trade union education work. They often carry out their educational measures in cooperation with regional and / or national youth organizations.

Trade union education focused in Germany, has been partly integrated into the social security systems since the labor movement, to the training of trade union officials ( official training ). This also extends beyond the narrow circle of those active in the trade unions to those who work in the various social security systems. In addition, there is also a repertoire of general education, which is often not only open to members, but largely depends on public funding in the field of adult education. Until the 1990s, the unions also had worker-training “ academies ” such as the Academy of Work in Frankfurt, the Social Academy in Dortmund and finally the University of Economics and Politics in Hamburg. "They played an important role in the qualification of trade union officials, especially in taking on full-time positions within the unions". Due to significant structural changes, however, both the Social Academy and the University of Economics and Politics lost their function as academies of workers' education.

In a broad sense, the trade union monthly books were also part of trade union education. Up until 2004, socio-political problems were discussed here at an academic level and political strategies were negotiated - often with an external perspective. This function has now been taken over by the Internet organ “ Gegenblende ”.

The range of tasks of trade union education today comprises two aspects:

  • the fulfillment of member interests for general education and specific educational offers in relation to the working and living environment
  • the formation of functionaries in the sense of the competent fulfillment of organizational goals. She should be there
    • Strengthening multipliers and multipliers of trade union politics in their tasks,
    • contribute to the integration of diverging member opinions and finally
    • bring about a mobilization of political “awareness”.

As a theory-practice structure, it can be characterized as in the following diagram:

Theory-practice structure of trade union education
Policy fields Relationships between theory and practice Items to negotiate Mediation modes
union policy objectives Head of organization → Education department Trade union policy - shaping educational work educational theory / curricula / educational administration
intra-union education policy Department of Education → Schools / Speakers Concepts - seminars educational / didactic-methodological / organizational-political goals
Membership Policy / Membership Policy Schools / speakers → participants / participants Educational material - seminars Methods

Agency for trade union education

DGB-Bildungswerk BUND

According to its own information, the DGB Bildungswerk BUND has 200 employees, more than 250 specialist speakers, trainers, teamers and tutors. Almost 70,000 participant days in over 600 weekly events, seminars, courses and conferences are realized annually.

The non-profit educational organization of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) is based in Düsseldorf and operated three training centers in Hamburg , Düsseldorf and Hattingen until 2011 . The Hattingen training center and the Hattingen youth training center are still available as conference centers. The DGB Education Center Besenbinderhof in Hamburg and the Education Center Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, located directly at the headquarters of the DGB Bildungswerk BUND, have been added. It is active in

DGB educational institutions at state level

In addition to the DGB Bildungswerk BUND in Düsseldorf, there are also DGB Bildungswerk at state level, such as the DGB-Bildungswerk NRW , the DGB Bildungswerk Thuringia or the DGB Bildungswerk Bayern . They were usually founded in the FRG in the 1970s in the course of the institutionalization and professionalization of adult education. They also followed the increased demands for education and exemption from the amended Works Constitution Act and the first educational leave laws of the federal states. In East Germany they followed after reunification and the adoption of the structures of the West German trade unions.

The individual unions as sponsors

View of the Ver.di education and meeting center " Clara Sahlberg " in Berlin-Wannsee.

The individual trade unions carry a considerable part of the trade union education work, especially in the form of functionary training. For this purpose, they often have their own educational institutions or educational houses for their organizational area , which operate at an enormous financial expense. Exemplary and not conclusive are mentioned here:

  • Development Centers of the IG Metall in Bad Orb, Berlin, Beverungen, Lohr, Sprockhövel, Schliersee and Inzell
  • Ver.di educational centers in Gladenbach, Brannenburg or also in Mosbach or Walsrode
  • The IG BCE training centers in Bad Münder, Haltern am See and Grünheide (Mark)
  • IG BAU education center in Steinbach im Taunus
  • NGG education center in Oberjosbach / Cologne region

Theoretical approaches and mediation principles

Pinboard report with metaplan cards as a result of a working group. Such an approach was based on the new form of "teamwork" in trade union education.
In the area of ​​open educational work, for example argumentation training for members, the variety of methods is greater than in the area of ​​teaching legal fundamentals ...
... but also dependent on the fundamentally desired mediation principles. Above all, how much the participants' experiences should and may be incorporated - as here when clustering personal experiences together.

Trade union education work is “as an extension of the ability to act” and a prerequisite for “the reflection of actions”, both by union officials and by union members. Despite this commonality, it was and is understood and handled very differently in the various unions and also within the DGB. This is already reflected in the language used in the designation of the skilled workers and pedagogues employed in trade union educational work (as speakers, teamers or lecturers). But much more so in the respective conceptions of trade union educational work, for example as “guideline-based didactic concepts” or the participants' approach to life. The difference also comes into play when it comes to the use of full-time and honorary speakers. The different approaches assign the teachers in the trade union training events different roles in relation to the learning interests of the participants.

There are therefore several theoretical approaches and didactic communication concepts for trade union educational work. Joachim Ludwig lists five different approaches:

  1. Oskar Negts "Sociological Fantasy and Exemplary Learning"
  2. Reason as a mediation principle
  3. Advice as a mediation principle
  4. Erhard Meueler's "Dialogue as a Mediation Principle"
  5. The concept of casework for "understanding as a mediation principle"

Sociological imagination as a mediation principle

Oskar Nigt's approach assumes that a form of workers' education should be developed as trade union work in which the workers are subjects of learning work. From content-related problems, class-specific language structures, ideas and images of society, the historical goals of the labor movement and the objective possibilities in the existing society, principles of an educational method should be developed that initially only applies to workers.

As a first step, a sociologically and politically mediated elementary education should establish itself in the trade union education work, but not as a proletarian imitation of a bourgeois half-education . An undervaluation of education in the trade unions had led to the fact that, due to the increase in the number of employees, the petty-bourgeois and middle-class ideologies , which were repeatedly reproduced by the school system and in which authoritarian awareness potential developed , could penetrate the trade union educational work without effective counter-forces. He is also critical of the development of trade union educational work insofar as there is a risk for him that the trade unions will act as a regulatory authority over the workers .

In terms of content and method, trade union educational work must therefore take an autonomous position vis-à-vis civil educational institutions. An approach must therefore be developed which starts directly from the experiences of the workers and has to deal with the class-specific preformed structures of feeling, thinking and language in the exemplary treatment of social conflicts in the company and everyday life . These are to be linked with the historical events. So it is not about the pure transfer of knowledge , but about the application of sociological imagination of workers within their extra-scientific forms of language and thought, with which they come to a processing of practice.

Didactically, these concepts try to relate everyday experience to the general societal and, on the part of the teacher, to offer interpretative contexts, for example the basic contradiction between capital and work. However, in practice, these reconstructions, in which the teacher has a certain degree of sovereignty, can lead to diverse learning resistances.

Reason or advice as a mediation principle

Two of Joachim Ludwig's five criteria are summarized here.

  1. Reason as a mediation principle follows the main idea that subjective experiences and general principles can be mediated via the logic of everyday situations. In doing so, typical knowledge can be generated via science - or appropriate experts - and, with a reasonable comparison, the ability to act can be established. Central to this conception is that the general must be contained in the individual particular. In addition to planning security, which is given by reasonable principles, there is a central area of ​​conflict here: “The horizons of meaning of participants who fall outside of this reasonable framework often appear to the teachers as a problem. Because they are not considered premeditated, they are not considered general, i. H. unreasonable and therefore apolitical "
  2. With the proposal from 2002, IG Metall proposes advice in the run-up to educational processes in order to achieve “tailor-made education”. Based on this process, the joint education should be planned and carried out. The previous conception of guideline-based seminars is being abandoned in favor of modular systems. The trade union educational work is designed as a concept for qualification and the learners "designed as self-determined, self-organized, reflective and sovereign citizens who design their training course independently". The central concepts of these participants are the ability to act and competencies that relate to the role in of the organization, but are also important beyond that. The political debate now revolves around how the social relationship to individual experiences can be established.

Dialogue as a mediation principle

In the case of communication through dialogue, such as the one conceived by Erhard Meueler, the teachers in trade union educational work see themselves as experts who organize learning opportunities for the participants. In the context of a teaching / learning contract, instead of instructions, there should be an exchange of experiences on "objective learning requirements". The lecturer offers the participants scientific knowledge for interpretation with their everyday knowledge. Particular attention should be paid to the individual's social disabilities in order to be able to act in a “forward-looking process of critical self-thematization”. The focus is that the participants deal with the learning content on their own initiative and independently. It remains unclear what objective learning requirements are and what their value is.

Understanding as a principle of mediation

The educational concept of “casework” tries to understand the inner perspective of the participants in trade union training events and to make it “the starting point of the mediation process”. Difficult action situations they have experienced themselves and their associated irritations are taken up and discussed. The meaning of the actions and their difficulties should be mediated with the social conditions. Understanding the problem of action from the internal perspective of the participants is designed as a mediation process that can lead to a new classification, but above all to new meaning, to other counter-horizons and thus to new perspectives for action for the other participants as well. The educational content becomes relational and historical. They lose a comprehensive claim to validity and thus their traceability to a societal general. “Whether and in what way the learner takes up this offer remains ultimately unavailable to the teacher”.

Future of union education

Society has changed in a relevant way, which also has profound consequences for trade union education. This means that methods of “subject orientation” or topics such as precarization and European integration would have to play an important role. In seminar practice, this is often countered by the fact that a not inconsiderable part - especially in the area of ​​adult education - is still covered by speakers. Often associated with “unimaginative” forms of work and predominantly verbal methods such as doctrinal conversations and discussions.

In trade union education, the problems that trade unions have in general are also clearly evident. A significant decline in membership is offset by lower income. This (s) lead to cutbacks also in the education sector of the trade unions. In addition, the unions have problems delimiting their organizational areas, which quickly leads to the question of who can or may have whom for educational work. The economic justification pressure of the respective education departments has increased, not least because of the unanswered question of the extent to which trade union educational work must be able to produce union functionaries.

The tension between functionary education and political education

There is no doubt that it makes sense in terms of organizational policy for the trade unions and the DGB to concentrate the educational measures on supporting those who are active within their own ranks and enabling them to take active action on site. On the one hand, however, this goes hand in hand with a “ corporateization ” of educational work, which makes the discussion and penetration of political issues and general problems more difficult, as they first have to go through the “eye of the needle” in the operational context - or they do not occur at all. By tying up the funds, however, another area clearly loses its importance: the general education of ordinary members or also the political education of people who basically agree to the goals of the trade unions and thus ensure a union-friendly environment. In any case, it is currently not foreseeable whether this area of ​​tension can actually be resolved.

The dual character of trade union education

Like the trade unions in general, trade union education work also has a dual character:

  • On the one hand, as can be seen above all in the seminar concepts based on guidelines, as a purpose-oriented educational work towards the functionaries, it helps to prepare direct company disputes. However, without having fundamental questions or questioning of the trade union resolutions and actions to the content. "Essentially, it is about 'training' with the aim of 'introducing the employee representatives in co-determination bodies in particular to their tasks and enabling them to translate the political demands [of the unions] into social reality'".
  • On the other hand, trade union education can and should contribute to the decision-making process within trade union organizations. This in turn presupposes concepts of trade union educational work which rather "question the prevailing political practice of the trade unions [...] and emphasize the element of the social emancipation movement more clearly [...]". A quality that is not undisputed within the trade unions as an organization.

As a continuing education strategy that also critically questions existing positions and political approaches of the trade unions, the second position is also in the long-term interests of employees and the trade unions. It is precisely on this type of educational work that the future of trade union educational work is likely to depend on it, in the sense that it can open up new target groups and attract participants.

The use of "social media"

Trade unions have always had an ambivalent relationship to technical progress. In vocational training this was regularly accompanied by the devaluation of established and the creation of new job profiles. On the other hand, there was the optimistic attitude of the unions until at least the 1980s, which combined the use of microcomputers to “liberate” work from hard physical labor.

In contrast, the trade unions and trade union training providers have always found it difficult to use new methods and concepts. It is noticeable that in the field of so-called social media or e-learning there is still no established and comprehensive offer. There are still a few pilot projects (such as the ver.di be-online project) or individual courses.

education for Sustainable Development

Most striking and also the most problematic, however, is that the debate about education for sustainable development has not yet arrived in trade union education. This can be seen in several indicators, for example in the number of seminars on the topics of ecology, energy transition, corporate environmental protection, etc. But also in the specific topics if one sifts through various training programs of trade union organizations. It can be assumed that this has to do with the organizational structure of the unions as industrial unions , which in turn has a decisive influence on the participants and their interests. At least in the area of ​​IG Metall, most of the participants who are reached come from large company structures.

Education for sustainable development is also to be understood in the sense that it is intended to ensure one's own future viability. A task that goes beyond the respective organizational areas of the individual trade unions and should be taken up across sectors by the DGB or the corresponding educational institutions and union-related organizations. Also in terms of sustainable trade union education.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Union education  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Diegmüller 2011 and Budde 2002: Trade union educational work “is part of the organizational work”.
  2. ↑ Accordingly, trade union training measures are listed in Dirk Lange's “Monitor Political Education” at the social level. See Lange 2010, pp. 134ff
  3. ↑ See Dittrich & Günthner 1998
  4. ↑ There was a shift from the “traditional goals” to “political education based on trade union interests and objectives” (Annual Report of the DGB Bildungswerk Bayern 1982/83, p. 19).
  5. ↑ Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 393
  6. ↑ Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980
  7. ↑ Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 394
  8. ↑ Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 397
  9. ^ Stefan Müller: trade unionist, socialist and educational worker. Heinz Dürrbeck (1912-2001). Klartext, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0201-5
  10. ↑ Derichs-Kunstmann 3 2009, p. 508f
  11. ^ Annette Rehbock: Sociological knowledge and trade union organization. Union education in the 1970s . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 1989, ISBN 3-924550-33-6 , p. 30 .
  12. ↑ a b Ludwig 2003, p. 91
  13. ↑ Ludwig 2003, p. 86
  14. ↑ See IG Metall 2002 p. 40f
  15. ↑ Ludwig 2003, p. 87
  16. ↑ On a meta level, one can then speak of the fact that "without any social reference, the problem of mediation between the subject and social conditions is excluded" (Ludwig 2003, p. 87)
  17. ↑ Ludwig 2003, p. 88
  18. ↑ Ludwig 2003, p. 89
  19. ↑ Ludwig 2003, p. 90
  20. ↑ On this already Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 401.
  21. ↑ On this, Zoll, 2nd edition 1976
  22. ↑ a b Ahlheim 1982, p. 173
  23. ^ Ahlheim 1982
  24. ↑ cf. on this Budde 2002

Quotes:

  1. ↑ "Trade union education work sees itself as political education work" (Ludwig 2003, p. 83).
  2. ↑ The question arises as to whether the “long, changeful, collective experiences of the organization that manifest themselves in the decision-making process are to be regarded as static” and whether it can only be “always to bring them back into our heads”. Or whether “problems and developments that have led to this intra-union 'temporary agreement' may be discussed again in terms of their individual questions, conditions and consequences” (Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 400).
  3. ↑ It was "about the relationship between educational work and organization - determined by the contradiction of the need for centralization and standardization as a prerequisite for union clout on the one hand and the impossibility of limiting learning and thinking that is based on one's own interests as wage earners and on the other Possibilities for assertion relates ”(Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, p. 400).
  4. ↑ "It's [...] about the development of the ability to interpret social problems against the background of one's own employee existence with 'sociological fantasy', as Oskar Negt calls it" (Annual Report of the DGB Bildungswerk Bayern 1982/83, p. 19) .
  5. ↑ “The individual learner is confronted with interpretations of his everyday experience from the external point of view of the teacher, which claim to have recognized a general social context in this experience. This leads to different forms of resistance in educational practice ”(Ludwig 2003, p. 85).
  6. ↑ "The participants would be able to act politically if they were able to grasp the specifics of the operational situations in their general certainty" (Ludwig 2003, p. 85)
  7. ↑ This means: "Educational work as an accompanying and qualifying process, as concrete support for work and politics on site and in companies, as a qualification contribution to the further development of action and design skills" (Budde 2002).
  8. ↑ "But we are aware that members and functionaries who can self-confidently, professionally, purposefully and in solidarity pursue union interests have competencies that can also be helpful to them professionally and privately" (IG Metall 2002, p. 28).
  9. ↑ “In educational practice, the balance of power when drafting the teaching-learning contract is asymmetrical due to the stated professional competence of the teacher. The participants can only get involved in the teaching-learning contract to a limited extent with their questions and only a few answers ”(Ludwig 2003, p. 88).
  10. ↑ "Social conditions are understood as meanings or horizons of meaning. The meanings of the subject are socially produced, generalized possibilities (and restrictions) of action, which the subject can, but does not have to, implement in the context of the interests of his own life practice ”(Ludwig 2003, p. 89).
  11. ↑ "Understanding meaning as the ability to differentiate takes the place of judgment, sociological fantasy and understanding" (Ludwig 2003, p. 91).
  12. ↑ "Just as trade union policy as a whole has to face the rapid change in political, social and economic conditions and is in motion, this also applies to trade union education work" (Budde 2002).
  13. ↑ "The further development of educational work, which claims to be interest- and practice-related, should above all develop forms of work that combine the content-related problem processing more closely with the imagination and activity of the participants [...] [and] increasingly with the entire life context" relates (Bahl-Benker & Röske 1980, pp. 401 & 403).
  14. ↑ "There were seminars that responded directly to the needs of the companies and the local trade union policy" (Budde 2002).
  15. ↑ "Such a strategy of trade union education work is mainly geared towards short-term, day-to-day political interests and functional requirements" (Ahlheim 1982, p. 173).