The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has launched a new ‘School of Organising’ training course. The idea is to equip members with the skills needed to work alongside staff to fight for better pay, conditions and job security. 

Over 40 people from the IWGB’s membership of precarious and migrant workers will attend the course to become workplace organisers and leaders. 

The 6-week interactive course combines organising theory with practical on-the-ground experience and covers power mapping, holding persuasive organising conversations, planning campaigns and producing campaign communications. The course is supported by a one-on-one coaching scheme that will embed learning materials in members’ workplaces and help bring down barriers to participation. 

Members will join the training from across the union, including couriers and private hire drivers from the gig economy, cleaners, yoga teachers, foster care and game workers. 

Henry Chango Lopez, Secretary of the IWGB, said:

We want to train a new generation of grassroots leaders to build a bigger and better union that is proactively anti-oppressive and where everyone has a voice. This course will be a great step forward in building our organising capacity and putting our members at the centre of all of our campaigns.

The first School of Organising course is a level 1 course. It will be followed by advanced training in communications, case work, group facilitation, and campaigns. The course will increase the IWGB’s organising and campaigning capacity and will help to put the workers at the centre of the union’s future strategic plans. 

The IWGB is a member-led union of precarious and migrant workers. Their goal is to put workers at the centre of organising and planning of on-the-ground campaigns as well as their decision-making.

Photo: IWGB