The future of trade unions

Text of Brendan Barber's (TUC General Secretary) City University Vice Chancellor's Lecture

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All round the country, across the economy, unions and the TUC itself are now involved in delivering training in partnership with employers and learning providers of all sorts.

Union projects have opened up new learning opportunities at every level ranging from top level vocational qualifications and MBA's through to courses giving workers basic literacy and numeracy skills for the first time in their lives.

The government gave a real boost to this quiet revolution in union work with the establishment of the Union Learning Fund which has supported over 300 projects in over 3000 workplaces. More often than not, the thing that made the difference to those people was the fact that the invitation to take up a new programme of learning came not from the employer or the local College but from a fellow worker. It was that, that gave them the confidence to take the plunge.

And the key people in offering that invitation are the growing army of Union Learning Reps - trade unionists who take on their new role of negotiating training and learning opportunities with their employers, brokering new provision with local colleges and learning providers, and critically offering advice and guidance and often moral support too to their fellow workers.

The TUC has trained 5000 Learning Reps so far and now that this new role has been recognised in law - like the union Safety Rep role - we expect to see their new ranks grow rapidly. This is partnership in action. It clearly benefits the employee to learn new skills. It offers the chance to earn more, and to do more interesting work.

But it's also clearly of benefit to employers to have a more skilled workforce. That's what we mean by the mutual gains approach: strong effective trade unions engaging with employers confident enough to share problems. There is another factor driving partnership even in the midst of what is a very topical row.

Unions are increasingly realising that their members own a large part of British industry through their pension funds.

You will have seen us flex our muscles in the recent votes on executive pay, in Glaxo Smith Kline and HSBC for example. We have a network now of one thousand union trustees nominated by their fellow workers to help run their pension schemes including helping to manage funds worth £260 billion. The fact is that almost half of the shares in UK companies are held by institutional investors - our pension funds and the insurance companies that represent the savings of millions of ordinary people. It is time we made the connections and started influencing the way that investment power is put to use.

I want us to use our power as shareholders to oppose boardroom greed. But we need to look beyond the campaign against the fat cats. Because our new role also challenges adversarial union thinking.

If we want good pensions - and we do - we want the companies in which our pension funds are invested to do well.

We need them to be profitable. We need them to invest. We need them to grow and succeed year after year. That's the way they will employ more of our members, and that's the way we can share in their success when we retire and start to draw our pensions.

We indeed are exactly the kind of sensible long-term owners that good managers and forward-looking boards should welcome. We're not interested in casino capitalism, we want sustainable prosperity based on long-term success. Perhaps our job now is to save capitalism from the capitalists.

That is why I want to use our shareholder power, not just to fight boardroom excess, but also to promote long-termism, better corporate governance and a stakeholder approach. I have so far concentrated on our relationships with employers. These after all are our most important. Without employers and employees there would be no trade unionism.

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