European Review Issue 41 page 10

EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 41 - Page 10

Migrant workers get an education in union power

Angie Birtill is a tutor at the Trade Union Studies Centre (TUSC) of South Thames College and has previously been a Labour councillor at the London Borough of Camden as well as working for the London Irish Women’s’ Centre. She has recently been providing classes for ESOL students on employment rights.
Learning to speak English has become very contentious since the government introduced its plans to restrict free access to English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). As ‘Save ESOL campaigns’ are spreading throughout the country, the demand for ESOL classes has continued to exceed supply.
South Thames College is one of the largest ESOL providers in South London with 12% of students originating from Eastern Europe, 60% of those have come from Poland in the last two years.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and individual unions have long recognised the importance of providing ESOL classes in reaching migrant workers. The college’s TUC learning centre has worked jointly with its ESOL department in putting on classes in workplaces throughout London in response to demands from union learning reps. The unit has also been piloting basic employment rights sessions during ESOL courses.
Angie ran the unit’s first session for a group of under-19 students in June 2006. ‘We put together some basic activities under the heading “employment rights and responsibilities” and the group really responded well’ she told European Review. Later that month she helped to organise an event entitled ‘Decent Jobs for Refugees and Migrant Workers’ which included speakers from Asylum Aid and the Canary Wharf Cleaners Campaign. The college’s ESOL tutors and students were amongst the sixty-strong audience and they gave very positive feedback.

Last year TUSC ran further sessions and developed its original activities in response to requests from previous classes. One of the students taking part in last December’s session was 29-year-old Sonata Sakalauskaite from Lithuania. She told Angie about her experiences and the reasons why ESOL classes are so important. Sonata had come to England four years ago because she wanted ‘to get a better job’ and to ‘change her life’. She has three children, two daughters aged ten and three, and a son aged eight. At home, Sonata had worked with young children in a nursery. ‘I was also a cashier in a food shop’. The pay wasn’t good in either of these jobs according to Sonata. She later became a manager’s assistant in a mail order company where her rate of pay varied according to the number of deals she could make. Sonata found it very difficult settling in England		when she first arrived. ‘I lived in East London. I couldn’t get onto an ESOLcourse and the local nursery was full. It is also very hard to find a job if you speak little English’.Sonata eventually found employment with a cleaning agency where she was paid the national minimum wage. ‘I was sent to clean houses. The houses weren’t too messy but the job was a bit boring. I worked on my own and had no-one to talk to. I didn’t have a chance to speak English’. Sonata decided to move on when a friend told her about a Lithuanian cleaning company who were recruiting workers. She was taken on as a cleaner and continues to work for the company today. Sonata also moved over to South West London and successfully applied for an ESOL course at South Thames College. Her children are now settled in school and her youngest daughter attends the local nursery.
	Participants in the ‘Decent Jobs for Refugees and Migrant Workers’ event

‘I earn about £6 to £7 an hour in my job. It is easier to understand what people are saying and the company let me work hours which allow me to study and look after my children’.Sonata’s confidence has greatly improved since she began her ESOL course. She is determined to complete the course and to continue improving her English. ‘Then I will be able to find a better job. I would like to be a beautician or something like that’. Sonata enjoyed the TUC employment rights session and made a lively contribution to the disciplinary rôle- play. Today I have learned about employment rights’ she told Angie ‘and whatever job I get I will certainly join a union’.
Learning to speak English is not only important in building personal confidence and increasing the chances of people finding work, it is also valuable in enabling employees to improve their working conditions. The South Thames College initiative is significant in that it reaches ESOL students who are not already members of a trade union. In this way employment rights advice and information can be given directly to those who are working in the most exploitative areas of the economy and to those who have yet to find work.

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