Unions and Workforce Development (a discussion with John Monks)

In 2003 the Albert Shanker Institute and the New Economy Information service co-sponsored a luncheon discussion on the revitalization of the labor movement with John Monks, general secretary of Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC). An audience, including AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and a score of other union leaders and labor academics, listened as Monks described worker training initiatives by several TUC unions that have helped increase labor strength and membership in the UK. “In the long term,” said Monks, “skills and training are the future.” Morty Bahr, former president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and former member of the ASI board of directors, introduced Monks and related his remarks to the U.S. context.