Trade Union and Global Citizenship conference
by Jessie Grigg-Smith
On Friday 29th April 2005 Blueprint, the Development Education sector of BPEC held a conference in Hove Town Hall for GCSE students on Trade Unions and Global Citizenship. The conference was attended by 15 students from The Brighton Steiner School and their teacher Hazel.
Beth, Edward, Jessie and Seb were present from BPEC to supervise and coordinate the event which was hailed as a huge success.
The students arrived at 9.30 and the day started with an introduction to BPEC by Linda, a member of BPEC’s management committee, which was followed by a lively introductory talk by Edward on the rise of and
importance of trade unions in the UK and abroad. The bulk of the morning was spent taking part in a simulation game called ‘How PC is Your PC?’ about the electronics industry in Guadalajara, Mexico and the labour rights organisation CEREAL. The students were introduced to the issues surrounding this topic by an introductory game were they were asked to sit down if they had tatoos, any relatives involved in politics or were girls who had boyfriends! This was used to highlight the difficulty of getting a job in a Mexican factory where they would then, if successful, have to work on a monotonous assembly line for up to 12 hours a day standing up without speaking to anybody, only earning an
average of £8 a day. The main game consisted of simulating an eight hour shift in a factory where workers assemble component parts for computer manufacturers and an employment agency where the workers are employed. This agency later became a shop where the workers could spend their earnings. Role cards were handed out to the students most of whom were factory workers with a supervisor and a manager who sacked people and hired new ones. The game very successfully highlighted the dilemmas that workers face between keeping their jobs and demanding better pay and conditions. By the end of the game the
students had to decide whether to join a meeting of the labour rights organisation CEREAL. Everything in the game, including the Factory Rules and conditions described on the role cards were based on the real situations. The game was followed by a lively debriefing session in which the students discussed how the issues raised were not simply
limited to Mexico, but were global concerns relating to global citizenship and what can be done to raise these issues, including writing to computer manufacturers demanding information on their worker’s rights.
After a lunch break, the afternoon was spent with Justice for Columbia who held an informative yet harrowing workshop and video raising issues on labour rights and human rights abuses in Columbia. The students responded in a very mature, responsive and sensitive manner to the issues raised and this was followed by another lively debate surrounding how the morning’s game and the workshop related, as well as this we discussed what we as global citizens can do to make
a difference.
The feedback from the students and Hazel was very positive with comments such as how the day “made a lot of stuff clearer in my mind and makes me want to be more active in stuff.” Sam. Jared commented that trade unions are, “a lot more important than I first thought, they are certainly a vital part of the fight for justice over many different issues.” “It has made me even more aware of how important it is to know what our government is doing.”Gala.
Hazel commented that the day had managed to make an otherwise dull topic understandable and enjoyable with very informative presentations pitched at the right level for the student group. The students requested topics for future conferences including fair trade and trade justice, recycling, environmental disasters such as Bhopal, ethical consumerism, poverty in Africa especially with regard to water access and issues surrounding streetkids, which is really positive for future events.