This text is part of the special booklet 33rd congress of the FTQ
For 50 years, the Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) has been committed to education. “It’s our biggest service. It employs seven people full-time, and three other employees also devote part of their time to it. For a small organization with only 50 employees, that’s a lot,” says Jean Binet, director of the education department.
The 66 training courses offered cover labor law (grievance arbitration, cases before the administrative labor tribunal) as well as negotiation (calculation of the costs of collective agreements) or work accident investigations. These trainings are very specialized and intense, over two or three days, sometimes a week — and even six intensive weeks for the FTQ-Fonds college, intended for councilors and union officials.
Jean Binet explains that most of this training is aimed at trainers from affiliated unions, who then train their own members. “We are looking for multipliers. The FTQ is very decentralized, so our goal is to assist our affiliated unions by offering them a very specialized service through the design of training and the training of trainers. »
A philosophy of popular education
Johanne Deschamps, now retired, was one of the first people trained by this service, created in 1973. “That’s how I got hooked on training,” says this pioneer, who worked there for 26 years, to then become a political adviser to the leaders of the FTQ.
From the start, the FTQ wanted to innovate by adopting the approach of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. “It was an experiential philosophy based on education by peers rather than experts. The trainer leads the group through discussion in order to develop the analytical capacity of the members and build working knowledge. I remember that it had created a little controversy at the time because, for many people, a real training could only be “masterful” and given by an expert. »
“Our training has evolved a lot, but, basically, it remains our fundamental approach and the common thread of everything we have done for 50 years and that we still do today,” says Johanne Deschamps, who collaborates in addition to a book to be published this year devoted to the service of education. “What is exceptional in what we have done is that we have maintained this approach without ever falling into expertise. »
While the non-legal pedagogical approach remains unchanged, the education department has nonetheless had to constantly adapt to social and technological developments. In the 1970s, he had to respond to the issue of the status of women. In the 1980s, it was that of workplace safety and retirement. Now it’s the legalization of labor relations.
” We adapt. We even adapted to the disappearance of subsidies for adult training,” recalls Jean Binet, a former union member with the Steelworkers when he was a mining truck driver in Thetford Mines. “The most recent development has been the systematic use of online training, because of health measures. »
Next June, the education department will take stock of its 50th anniversary during its three-year seminar, which brings together around a hundred employees and trainers.
“It’s about evaluating what we do best, the training that needs to be reviewed, the new needs, but also the main orientations, explains Jean Binet. Much has been learned about the benefits and limitations of online training. The other major subject of reflection will concern the way of measuring the degree to which the union members who receive our training are able to pass on their knowledge. »
In French please !
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, relating to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.
This special content was produced by Le Devoir’s special publications team, reporting to marketing. The editorial staff of Le Devoir did not take part.