United Workplaces: Uniting workplaces through learning

Scottish Union Learning organised a four-day training programme, ‘United Workplaces: Uniting workplaces through learning’, which was open to Project Workers/Union Learning Organisers. The programme also welcomed local Trades Councils, building on work undertaken with the Trades Councils in Aberdeen, Dundee, Fife and Glasgow earlier this year. A second programme was organised to provide ULR developmental training on Tackling Harmful Narratives was delivered by Show Racism the Red Card at the Spring 2026 iteration of Union Learning Development Days. The training was further supplemented by Trades Councils delivering a United Workplaces session, where they spoke about local concerns.

The four-day programme consisted of intensive training:

• Show Racism the Red Card: Developing framing and messaging skills to counter discriminatory narratives and misinformation
• Time for Inclusive Education: Strategic Dialogue - Understanding and Countering Online Hate and Disinformation
• Hailey Maxwell: Women’s Equality and Intersectionality
• Hailey Maxwell: Managing difficult conversations
• Neish Training: Developing and implementing positive action approaches

Feedback from the programme has been positive with attendees reinforcing the need for such training, that they have felt and seen growing hostilities within their workplaces and communities. SUL ensured two representatives from the training programme participated in the STUC’s dissemination event in March, sharing good practice and the challenges faced.

Kevin Duguid, UNISON Learning Organiser said, ‘This programme provided essential learning and networking opportunities, which really brought home the need to widen out this type of work not just to union activists but to people in communities who often see a very one-sided narrative, littered with disinformation and outright lies, driven by far-right agitators’.