Download Melanie Simms’ introduction click here, and download her PowerPoint presentation click here.
Download Paul Nowak’s introduction click here and download his PowerPoint presentation click here.
In 1998, 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 at Warwick University
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).
Paul Nowak, TUC National Organiser
Paul has worked for the TUC in a number of roles. He has been TUC regional secretary in the North East and Cumbria and Director of the TUC Organising Academy. Prior to that he was an active lay union representative and was one of the first people to undergo training with the Organising Academy. He is now TUC National Organiser and is responsible for organising policy and practice
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