• Paul Nowak Paul Nowak

    Its September, its Brighton, it must be Congress!

    In the second week of September unions will (once again) descend upon Brighton for Congress 2008.

    It feels like Congress has been held in Brighton forever (in fact this is the 5th year on the trot the event has been held in the south coast resort) – but delegates can look forward to something a little bit different in 2009 when Congress pitches up in Liverpool for the first time in its history. Liverpool is a great choice, not only because of the city’s radical heritage, but also because it means I’ll be able to sleep in my own bed every night!

    Anyway, getting back to Congress 2008. One of the key events during the week will be a session on Wednesday morning to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Organising Academy. This will be followed by a fringe meeting on the afternoon featuring contributions from Arlene Holt Baker of the AFL-CIO, Mark Sewotka, Chris Keates and Paddy Lillis.

    Join us if you can!

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    Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Paul Nowak filed under: Union news, Union organising

  • Carl Roper Carl Roper

    First unions sign up to support the Activist Academy

    The first group of unions have signed up to support the TUC’s Activist Academy.  The Activist Academy is a new initiative from the TUC, supported by unionlearn that aims to increase the skills and participation of union reps and activists in campaigning, organising and recruitment activity.

    The Activist Academy will be formally launched at Congress in September, then piloted in three TUC regions before being rolled out nationally in early 2009.

    The first group of supporting unions are;

    • ASLEF
    • ATL
    • NASUWT
    • NUT
    • National Union of Journalists
    • PCS
    • PROSPECT
    • TSSA
    • UCATT
    • UCU

    Whilst each supporting union will have its own approach towards how it uses the Activist Academy alongside its own training, each union has committed to wherever possible providing support to their reps and activists in attending Activist Academy programmes.

    Additional information on the Activist Academy and the pilot programmes can be found here.

     

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    Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Carl Roper filed under: Union organising