THIS BOOK IS OUR EFFORT to put on paper what we've learned collectively in decades of union work, and shared in two years of intense dialogue. We feel it is time to move this conversation out of our living rooms. For many years now educators working in Canada's labour movement have been talking informally about the beauty and the strain of our work. As five people engaged in very different ways in union education, we have discussed in ones and twos why we love the labour movement and how it drives us crazy - what we find that works and doesn?t work in our courses and meetings, in our conferences and conventions. Often these conversations have involved other activists who promote learning in the labour movement (though many of them might not think of themselves as educators). In this text we are responding to the wide interest in the labour movement and its social allies about methods of increasing participation, mobilization, and democratic practice. The book represents our effort to pull together what we have learned both separately and together, and then to turn that learning into a wider public discussion.

ABOUT THIS BOOK
THIS COLLECTIVE WRITING PROJECT builds on the experience of Educating for a Change, published in 1991. (Three of us were among the five authors of that book, which presents a popular education approach to the strategy, design, and facilitation issues that face politically progressive adult educators.) To a large degree, this book reflects the same values as the earlier one, but applies them to a specific part of the broad movement for economic and social justice: the labour movement. It reflects what all of us have learned from our successes and failures in the past decade.

The title? Education for Changing Unions consciously plays with the word ?changing.? This book celebrates the unions that are using education as a strategy for change and offers tools to further their work. We also know that there are many educators, inside and outside
the labour movement, who are working to increase the will and capacity of unions as instruments of social and economic justice. In both these senses, our book aims to sup-port activists in bringing the practices of our social movements closer to their declared goals.

Who are we anyway, who presume to write this book? Readers will find out lots about us in the pages that follow, but it may be helpful up
front for us to put our cards on the table, to save readers some time. Please remember that no individual is the sole author of any part of this book, but you will certainly find some individual personalities shining through on occasion.

Bev Burke brings to the group many years of international solidarity education, especially in Latin America. Her special focus has been on the design of union education programs, and on teaching potential worker educators. She has worked on contract with a range of unions, including the Steelworkers, Autoworkers, and Postal Workers.

Jojo Geronimo, with his mix of experience in several parts of Asia and deep roots in Toronto?s immigrant and refugee community, has a flair for policy analysis and strategy. He works in the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), with specific responsibility for the educational component of the ?Network for Better Contracts? Program.

D?Arcy Martin, a former Canadian education director in three different unions, brings a sense of organizational issues and union democracy. He works on contract with several labour bodies, especially in Quebec and Saskatchewan, and is co-ordinator of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work at the University of Toronto.

Barb Thomas worked initially in community settings in Canada and the Caribbean, then on contract at all levels of the labour movement, and later as a staff member of the Service Employees International Union. She brings to our discussion particular strengths in anti-racism work, facilitation, and worker educator programs. She now works on contract for several unions.

Carol Wall worked for years in the newspaper industry and sharpened her social justice perspective through various volunteer positions within the labour movement before becoming a union staff rep for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP). She continues to design and lead courses as the first Human Rights Director of the CEP.