In 1994, UNITE local 459 started a project called "Communication Barriers to Union Practice." The project was undertaken in partnership with the Manitoba Federation of Labour and the joint employer-union- government Workplace Education Manitoba Steering Committee. This project was aimed at helping a largely immigrant workforce in the garment trade gain better basic skills to help them participate in the union.
A payroll percentage for training had been in place since the early 1990s. UNITE had negotiated cents per hour contributions from employers in the area into an education and research fund solely administered by the union. The fund now accesses some $110,000 per year.
The local also had a resolution adopted at the UNITE Canadian conference supporting a union role in literacy and ESL/FSL (English as a Second Language, French as a Second Language). UNITE went onto receive National Literacy Secretariat funding for a research project on membership needs in this area.
As a result of these initiatives, the local set up The Learning Experience Centre in Winnipeg. The Learning Centre currently has about 70 students in different courses. One course is the Integrated Learning Program, where participants use computers to learn better reading, writing and computer skills. The program is particularly geared to an ethnically diverse workforce and involves family members and friends of the workers. This opens up new possibilities for reaching workers who are not in unions. A women's committee ensures that the needs of women workers are given attention. The program offers GED as well as computer skills.
The poem at right was written by Florence Marquez, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Florencia, or Florence, Marquez is the President of UNITE Local 459. In 1973, she came to Canada from the Philippines with her family and began working in the apparel industry in 1977. Along time union activist, she took advanced conversational English and Integrated Learning at the Learning Experience Centre.