Global Workers’ Academy on Addressing Transitions

The world of work is undergoing significant transformations due to concurrent transitions, including digital transition, artificial intelligence, green and just transition and transition for formality. These transitions are transforming jobs, skills sets, work organisation and employment relations with profound direct and indirect implications on workers, decent work and trade unions operations. While trade unions have traditionally addressed these transitions separately, it is evident that they share common risks, challenges and, opportunities for workers. In response, trade unions are transforming, leveraging opportunities albeit mounting challenges. It is in this context, that the Global Academy was designed and tailored to build knowledgeable, strong and responsive trade unions able to adapt, navigate, anticipate, and innovate, ensuring they remain relevant and effective in supporting their members amidst these transitions. Following four weeks online training, this face-to face phase focused on a competence approach with particular attention to the transformative, transversal and transferable competences required by trade unions to effectively seize opportunities, shape and cope across all the four transitions. Overall, the Academy aimed at strengthening trade unions’ capacity to holistically and effectively influence national polices and responses across these transitions, prioritising decent work principles, and the needs and concerns of workers. OBJECTIVES The specific objectives of the training activity were to: i. Enhance trade unions’ knowledge capacities on the interconnection of the four transitions and, implications for future of work, workers, decent work and trade union transformation; ii. Strengthen the transformative, transversal and transferable competences in order to increase workers’ agency and responsibility to act, adapt and innovate and, to integrate all these transitions in their trade union development strategies, policies, and, collective bargaining; and, iii. Empower trade unions to increase their agility and amplify workers’ voices, and, effectively engaging with and influencing the policymakers regarding these four transitions. CONTENT The course comprised of the following: i. Simulation exercises to connect all the four transitions and develop an integrated and holistic approach to address challenges and leveraging opportunities in the four transitions; ii. Integrating horizon scanning and futures thinking approaches in trade union organisational development; iii. Role play sessions to strengthen trade union social dialogue and collective bargaining competences to foster decent work for platform economy workers; and, iv. Development of trade union strategies namely: lobbying and campaigning; social dialogue; organising; and, worker education using the competence approach.