LABOR STRIVES FOR DIGNITY
FARRELL, JAMES T.
Trade Union Education Labor Strives for Dignity By Jamte T. Farrell Author, "The Road Between" TRADE UNION EDUCATION might be seen in a clearer focus if we regard it from a dual...
...The Education Department, under the direction of Victor G. Reuther, spends a minimum of $600,000 a year...
...Basically, the conference dramatized only the union's educational program...
...outlines of the duties of stewards and local union presidents...
...The ILGWU has established a summer camp, where its members can spend their vacations, &nd where both recreational and educational opportunitise are open to them...
...The UAW has about a million members...
...equip the functionaries—and the rank and Ale—with the knowledge they need in order to defend the material interests of the unioa It is practical in character...
...Most press accounts of the Milwaukee educational conference emphasize its political aspects, for journalists went there seeking clues which would reveal future UAW policies...
...In doing this, they have also linked up education and recreation...
...It entertains and initiates projects in dizzy succession—more, in fact, than can be carried out...
...Especially since it has come under the leadership of Walter Reuther, it has stood well out in the forefront of progressive trade unionism in every area of union activity...
...Ammunition, which is gradually expanding the type of subject matter treated, and is even beginning to publish book reviews...
...Many of its leaders are still in their thirties and early forties, but they have already acquired a life-time of experience in trade union and political activity...
...The UAW Education Department, for instance, devotes considerable attention to recreational programs in the locals...
...The battle for the mind of America, and of the world, goes on...
...The union locals are spread out all over this nation and Canada...
...There were panel discussions on twenty subjects, no less...
...Programs like that of the- UAW constitute part of the training for this battle...
...What it sends the locals relates largely to the problems which come up in the day-to-day life of the union: "tool" material on matters like grievance procedures...
...The UAW has grown to its present strength within the last fifteen years, and it has done' so against the opposition of some of the most powerful industries in the world...
...It is commonly agreed that the UAW is one of the most militant and democratic unions in America...
...This is understandable, but one-sided...
...outlines and charts on parliamentary procedure...
...It operates a motion picture division "within its Educational Department...
...It owns its own book store in Detroit, and at its educational conference in Milwaukee last January the UAW book store sold about two thousand dollars worth of books...
...Similarly, many of the union rank and file have had relatively extensive experience in strike struggles and in other union activities...
...The membership includes workers of many levels of education, from the college level down to mere literacy...
...On the other hand, trade union education is part of the general system of education—most specifically, adult education—in America as a whole...
...Some tie-up between educational and recreational activities in trade union education is highly important—and recreation should be regarded as more than a mere comeon...
...This membership is not homogeneous...
...but this practical effort can stimulate a growing ambition to learn and to understand issues not of direct union concern...
...Delegates came determined to learn and to carry back to their locals information of value to their educational work...
...And if we realize this fact, we should be able to understand that any alert and conscientious trade union educator must inevitably push beyond the limits of pure and simple trade unionism in his educational work...
...The UAW has invested large sums in cooperatives, and has begun to build its own cooperatives...
...basic economic analyses presented in terms of the position of the union and of the Ideas and program of UAW President Walter Reuther...
...Among UAW members one can find highly developed political and cultural consciousness and, also, backwardness, ignorance and prejudice...
...At least one Yale alumnus is a rank-and-filer, and many other college graduates work in shops and belong to the UAW...
...On the one hand, it' is a special form" of education concerned with deepening union consciousness, adding to the intellectual equipment of active trade unionists, and instructing workers in the use of those tools and techniques which will enable them to work more effectively for the achievement of the goals of their union...
...These included works by Thorstein Yeblen, Vernon F. Parrington, Robert Lynd, James Joyce and Emily Dickinson...
...Not least, the conference stressed the relationship between knowledge and power, and although the discussions were geared to the practical problems of the union, lessons in democratic and collective thinking for socfial ends were instilled in many delegates, This sort of training promises to create not only trade unions of greater competence, but also citizens who can play a fuller part^ in the general struggle to preserve and expand freedom, and to raise the material level of the people...
...Sectional 'and local interests, rivalries and prejudices, all seethe in the UAW melting pot...
...Every political tendency from right to left is also to be found in this union...
...Recreational activities, tiedln with educational ones, make it easier for the trade union educator to appeal to his rank' And .'file not only as pure and simple trade unionists, but more broadly as full human beings...
...Today, the UAW is one of the vanguards of democratic sentiment in the United States...
...It publishes a monthly magazine...
...It has won for its members just about every gain and advantage which could possibly have been made, considering its resources, its internal factional problems, and the power of the corporations it has had to tackle...
...This, at any rate, is the goal which many UAW leaders are striving toward...
...All of these problems can be seen clearly in the case of the UAW and its educational activities...
...One of the main contributions which a trade union can and so often does make in the life of workers is that of helping them to gain an added sense of dignity...
...The whole history of the trade union movement, not only in America but also in other countries, reveals that status, dignity, has always been as important as ma-" terial gains...
...The tone of these discussions was serious...
...It is now a major force in the Democratic Party in Michigan...
...Trade Union Education Labor Strives for Dignity By Jamte T. Farrell Author, "The Road Between" TRADE UNION EDUCATION might be seen in a clearer focus if we regard it from a dual perspective...
...OVER A CENTURY AGO...
...Gradually, the UAW has moved forward into many peripheral undertakings...
...Although some trade union educators might not be willing to admit this broader significance of trade union education, it can be seen unmistakably the moment one looks at the subject objectively and disinterestedly...
...This department, whose work was messed up by Stalinist interference prior to Victor Reuther's administration of it, pours out to the locals a continuous stream of pamphlets, leaflets, articles, brochures, posters, recorded speeches and broadcasts...
...THE UAW'9 COMPOSITION should suggest how closely its educational problems resemble those of American education in general...
...It now owns its own radio station in Detroit, and has another Station in Cleveland under construction...
...in the United States of the pre-Jacksonian and Jacksonian eras, when American trade unions were in the initial stages of their development, a significant demand of workers was for "status...
...This is a highly practical form of education...
...In general, it has begun to integrate Itself into'the community, and is becoming a social, political and cultural force in the,hatioh...
...If and as this educational activityJs broadened and enlarged, it can produce a lasting and progressive effect on the entire life of America...
...The task of nourishing the progressive and democratic spirit of the UAW is more difficult than it would in other unions...
...This material is designed to...
...One of the important reasons why the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (AFL) and the.United Automobile Workers Union (CIO) have been among the pioneers in the field of trade union education, is because they have broken ground outside of the limited boundaries of pure and simple trade union education...
...THE UAW CONSTITUTION makes it mandatory for all locals to have an educational committee — education has become almost a sacred cow in the union...
Vol. 32 • April 1949 • No. 15
