School of Organising

Have you joined IWGB and are not sure where to find out more information? Have you been a member for a while, but could do with some ideas on how to get more involved? Are you looking for next steps on how to get your workplace or industry unionised?

The IWGB is launching its new School of Organising. The School will provide the key skills active members and union reps need to develop and run effective trade union campaigns. Through a mix of workshops, coaching sessions and practical experience, trainees will work together to build their capacity to organise and build their union at work.

Intro to the Union

These sessions are run every 2 months and September workshop dates will be released soon. Come along to understand how IWGB actually works, and how we can begin organising in our workplaces now.

An Intro to IWGB: We’ll recap how trade unions came to be and the benefits of being a trade union member. We’ll also hear from IWGB’s founding members on how and why they created the union. Finally, we’ll give you an overview of how the union and its structures operate, and opportunities for how you can get more involved.

Know your Rights at Work: We’ll cover the essential information you need to know to protect your rights, and those of your colleagues, at work. We’ll focus on the key laws that impact your working life and how you can use them to defend your rights. We’ll also cover your key rights when on a march or protest.

Organising at work: This session will give you 5 easy steps to build a union at work. It aims to give you and your colleagues the basic skills and inspiration to start campaigning. Whether your workplace has 1 or 100 members, this session will give you tips and ideas to help grow your union and win for workers.

Digital skills 101: This session is for any IWGB member who would like to learn how to use key digital skills, both in your activity with IWGB as well as in everyday life. We’ll cover how to set up and use google docs, polls, email and whats app functions, as well as zoom features for attending and hosting online meetings. Great for those who are new to these features or would like to use them more.

Level One: Active Members’ Training

6th October- 13th November 2021

This six week course focuses on the core components of building union activity and representing members. Each session will be run twice weekly to accommodate workers’ schedules, and members will receive one to one coaching to identify barriers to participation, support learning and contextualise theory to IWGB branches and types of work.

Week 1: Introduction & Organising 101: an overview of how we build power at work and the role of leaders and active members in driving union activity.

Week 2: Mapping: understanding the industries we work in and how to map our companies and workplaces to build union density.

Week 3: Recruitment: we’ll discuss the importance of recruitment and 1:1s, and learn simple models for structuring our conversations.

Week 4: Running Campaigns: an introduction to how we develop strategic and targeted campaign plans.

Week 5: Developing Comms Campaigns: we’ll look at how we connect organising and communications campaigns and work on key skills around messaging and using social media.

Week 6: Employment Rights: an introduction to relevant employment law and how we can use it to identify and assert our rights at work.

Trainings will be delivered mainly in English, with simultaneous Spanish translation. Coaching will be in English and Spanish.

Each session will be 2 hours 15 minutes and hosted on Zoom. Each week the same session will be run on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons to accommodate workers’ schedules.

This training aims to up-skill a new generation of IWGB leaders and will be run at various times throughout the year. Places are limited and please contact IWGB’s Training Coordinator at natalieswan@iwgb.co.uk for more information.

Level Two: Advanced Training

Coming January 2022

Building on IWGB’s Level 1 Active Members’ Training, our advanced offerings allow members to specialise in areas of union activity that they are particularly interested in. Members can choose to focus on one or several of the following learning areas.

• Organising & Campaigns
• Employment Law & Case Work
• Communications for unions
• Facilitation & running effective union meetings

We’ll be posting more information about our advanced training later in the year.

For queries about IWGB’s training offering, email IWGB’s Training Coordinator at natalieswan@iwgb.co.uk.