Dr Melanie Simms, Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick
Roger McKenzie, Regional Secretary, Midlands TUC

Wednesday, 9th April 2008, 4pm
Midlands TUC: 24 Livery Street, Birmingham B3 2PA

In 2008 it is ten years since the Trades Union Congress (TUC) established its Organising Academy which was designed to train a new cadre of union officials. The aim was to develop a culture of organising that could help to transform the decline in union membership by bringing in new members who had been trained to be active within their own unions. This paper reports on first findings from an 18 month research project undertaken to coincide with the ten year anniversary of the Academy. Through a survey of people who have been trained in the Academy and a number of in-depth interviews, we look at the impact this project has had on  individuals, their unions and the wider union movement.

Dr Melanie Simms, Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick

Melanie’s research interests include trade union renewal; comparative and international trade unionism; service sector trade unionism. She has written extensively on the TUC’s Organising Academy since its inception in 1998, and is currently working on an analysis of the Organising Academy’s impact ten years on (along with Dr Jane Holgate from the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University).

Roger McKenzie, Regional Secretary, Midlands TUC

Roger is the regional secretary of the Midlands TUC and has worked before as race equality officer for the TUC and the civil service union, PCS. He has also been national education officer for one of PCS’ predecessors the National Union of Civil and Public Servants. Before that he was a trade union education tutor based in London and in Manchester.

This event is free, open to all, and there is no need to register. Contact Al Rainnie ( afr4@le.ac.uk) or Nik Hammer (nh80@le.ac.uk) for further enquiries.