Photo: IFWEA General Secretary Saliem Patel, with ACTRAV Director Oliver Röpke

During the 114^th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) held in June, IFWEA was afforded a meeting with the Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) that we requested. Present in the meeting with the IFWEA General Secretary, Saliem Patel, was the ACTRAV Director, Oliver Röpke,  the Deputy Director, Clair Ruppert, and the Senior Specialist on Workers’ Activities, Grayson Koyi.

Expanding access to quality workers’ education

Saliem introduced himself to the ACTRAV team and indicated how thankful he was for the meeting and was hopeful that this would be a new chapter of building relationships with ACTRAV. He briefly spoke about how IFWEA has taken the time to rebuild itself over the past decade through consolidating its membership that spans thirty-eight countries, most of which are in the Global South. In the process it has developed robust education programmes to cater for the needs and interests of workers’ education associations. Most importantly, IFWEA is ready to work with ACTRAV to expand access to quality workers’ education.

Our affiliates in Latin America, Africa and Asia have been the backbone of our programmatic development and are able to coordinate and run regional education activities using different education modalities and technologies, having developed the capacity through our global education programmes. In short, we see this meeting as a prelude to collaboration at a regional level that supports ACTRAV in making education for trade union members accessible. In a context when trade unions are struggling to provide education to grassroots leaders and the declining resources of ACTRAV (and the ILO as a whole) to support workers’ education, our collaboration can sustain and develop education activities at a country and regional level as well as through ACTRAV’s online education programme in the International Training Centre (ITC) of the ILO. Saliem concluded his presentation reiterating IFWEA shares with ACTRAV the goal to continuously improve the quality, methodology and diversity of workers’ education so that life-long learning becomes a reality for workers, especially members of trade unions.

Photo: ATRAV Deputy Director Clair Ruppert, IFWEA General Secretry Saliem Patel, ACTRAV Director Oliver Röpke and Senior Specialist on Workers’ Activities, Grayson Koyi

Saliem fielded some questions regarding our education programmes and membership involvement from the ACTRAV Director, Oliver Röpke, who then concurred that collaboration with and between workers’ education associations is needed to tackle the challenge of education for trade unions. There is a threat of declining membership, declining access to workers’ rights, especially with regard to the introduction of new technologies and the concomitant restructuring of work, which existing trade union education is challenged by. He concluded that ACTRAV has noted IFWEA’s request and that the Deputy Director, Clair Ruppert, will be the person best placed to concretise the form and subsistence of future collaboration.

Collaborative education programme

Saliem left the meeting inspired by the frank dialogue and optimistic that in the coming year we would indeed develop a collaborative education programme with ACTRAV – with education activities that are practical and that support the empowerment and interests of grassroots trade union leaders – and that IFWEA will develop a stronger working relationship with ACTRAV in the future.