Union Education

SGEU offers training courses for stewards and elected officers. Please check the calendar below for upcoming courses and contact information.

ULD Course Calendar

SGEU's Core Courses

ULD 10: Introduction to Role of Steward (7 hours
• Know more about unions, SGEU, and the role of steward within SGEU
• Practise skills in communicating, educating, and problem-solving
• Become familiar with how to read a collective agreement
• Gain confidence in your ability to be a steward

ULD 11 Stopping Harassment at Work (7 hours)
• Understand the steward’s role in fighting harassment
• Work to combat harassment by our personal behaviour and our role as a steward
• Believe that fighting harassment and creating respectful workplaces are core roles of a union
• Commit to an on-going process of self-education on harassment
• Know where to find resources on harassment

ULD 12 Know your Collective Agreement (7 hours or self-guided)
• Become familiar looking for information in your collective agreement
• Identify needed improvements for upcoming bargaining

ULD 20 Second-level steward training (4 days)
Orientating New Members
• Be able to provide perform a basic new-member orientation
Contract Knowledge
• Learn key concepts for interpreting, understanding, and applying collective agreements
Contract Enforcement
• Practise informal problem-solving, and preparing and presenting a grievance at Step 1
Stewards and Equity
• Explore concepts such as duty of fair representation and racism in the context of the union’s support for representative workforce and increased recruitment of Aboriginal workers
Why Unions? Why SGEU?
• Examine the history of solidarity and struggle in the development and growth of the labour movement and in particular, of SGEU
Steward as Communicator: Getting off the Triangle
• Develop healthy approaches to communications and to inclusive member participation in the union.

ULD 30 Third-level steward training (4 days)
Contract Enforcement II
• Practise using problem-solving skills to address workplace problems
Labour Law
• Increase understanding of the Trade Union Act, Public Service Essential Services Act, and other key laws affecting workers and unions
Effective Communications with Members (3 hours)
• Identify practices for effectively sharing union information and mobilizing members
Stopping Harassment at Work
• ULD 11
Global Solidarity • Gain a greater understanding of the impact of corporate globalization on workers

ULD 40 Bargaining School (20 hours)
• Support bargaining committees to achieve the best-possible contracts for members by gaining essential technical skills and strategic planning skills
• Equip bargaining committees with techniques to involve and interest rank-and-file members in the bargaining process

ULD 60 Specialized training including Facilitator Training (4 days)
• Acquaint participants with the principles and practice of popular education in a union context
• Identify participants with the potential to move on to become member-facilitators of the ULD 10

Ombudsmun Training (3 days)
• Equip participants with the information, attitudes and skills needed to act effectively in an ombudsmun role at SGEU events and on an on-going basis
• Strengthen participants’ judgment in dealing with conflict and harassment situations
• Promote a thoughtful and respectful climate of discussion in SGEU as a necessary condition for solidarity among union members

ULD 70 Unionism on Turtle Island (4 days)
• Deepen our understanding of Aboriginal history and impacts of colonialism on Aboriginal people today
• Examine the continued efforts of Aboriginal people in Canada to resist colonization and to exercise their rights
• Explore the many connections between Aboriginal struggles and labour struggles in this country
• Build the capacity of Canadian unions and Aboriginal activists to work effectively together on common and connected struggles