Education and research
for the International
Trade Union movement
Our Work / Issues
Informal Work
GLI undertakes research and education focusing on understanding and analysing informal and precarious employment, workers’ livelihoods, and the development of informal workers’ organisations. Recent work has included research and publications on domestic workers, home-based workers, and informal transport workers.
Gender and Equalities
GLI is committed to the fight for equality – in the workplace, in society and in the union. GLI develop research and education tools to address gender inequality, ensure that the voices and concerns of women are better represented and support the development of women’s programmes within the trade union movement.
Climate Crisis
The climate crisis is already destroying the livelihoods of workers across the world. Global transformation to a low carbon economy is more urgent now than ever. But this poses huge challenges for workers whose livelihoods risk being negatively impacted by the transition. But workers whose jobs are affected by the transition should not be left behind.
ABOUT US
The Global Labour Institute in Manchester is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2010 in cooperation with the Global Labour Institute in Switzerland and Trade Unions for Energy Democracy at City University, New York. Together with the GLI Rabochaya Politika and the GLI Paris (ReAct), the five organisations form the GLI Network and share a commitment to democratic socialist principles.
Trade Union Education
At GLI we undertake research, design and delivery of international courses and meetings for senior workplace reps in specific industrial sectors or corporations. Each course is designed to create or strengthen cross-border organisation and solidarity between unions to build collective power in the global workplace, working closely with the appropriate Global Union Federations. We also design, manage and evaluate longer-term international projects to support trade union development and organisation.
Depending on the needs of the commissioning union, we can provide preparatory research, course materials, programme design, speakers and facilitators, delivery and evaluation. All commissioned programmes are available to unions on a negotiated fee basis.
Direct international engagement
GLI has a large network of contact among national unions globally, international union federations, labour movement NGOs, workers’ education organisations, and specialist academics working within the labour movement.
Participatory
We are committed to a method of trade union education that is participatory and inclusive. We aim to provide an open space for debate and discussion.
Prior research
Each course is carefully prepared with research materials on the companies and sectors involved.
Action-orientated
Our courses are geared towards the development of concrete and specific plans of action by participants at the completion of the programme. This may include the establishment of permanent links with national or local unions in other countries, practical proposal for international networks of workplace union representatives within companies and sectors, or building working relationships with Global Union Federations.
Latest / What’s New / In Focus
- Electrifying Informal Transport: Putting Workers at the Centre of the Transition
As cities across Africa move toward electrifying informal transport systems,… Read more: Electrifying Informal Transport: Putting Workers at the Centre of the Transition - Building Capacity for Just Transitions: New Training Materials to Support Labour Equity in African Transport
To ensure African transport reforms are socially equitable, a new… Read more: Building Capacity for Just Transitions: New Training Materials to Support Labour Equity in African Transport - StreetNet International & GLI collaborate on Barometer Project
Informal street vendors and market traders make huge economic and… Read more: StreetNet International & GLI collaborate on Barometer Project - Global Labour Institute at VREF Global Summit
Public transport – formal and informal – is a vital… Read more: Global Labour Institute at VREF Global Summit
Latest / What’s New / In Focus
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‘Beyond Borders, Beyond Barriers: Young Workers Rise’
by
From 8th-11th May 2024, GLI Manchester attended the Building & Woodworkers International (BWI) Global Youth Festival in Türkiye. The event marked 10 years of the BWI’s ongoing effort to mobilise young workers amid…
Projects & Publications
We offer trade unions and support organisations specialist expertise and experience in research and publications, working closely with national and international research networks of supportive academics, and trade union research institutions. We also undertake independent evaluations of projects and programmes supporting workers’ organisations, labour education and trade union capacity development.
The GLI History Project & Book
In 2019, the GLI launched a new programme on the history of the international trade union movement, including a book on the history of the international trade union movement, accompanied by education projects to be undertaken with national and international unions.