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 Powering the Labour Movement since 1987 |
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A project of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council in partnership with George Brown College.
[COPE 343]
Beginnings: 1987 - 1991
Metro Labour Education Centre (MLEC) was created in 1987 when the Toronto Labour Council consolidated new and existing education and training projects. MLEC was funded, as it continues to be today, by the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada.
MLEC's predecessor, the Centre for Labour Studies, had been established in 1975 to offer:
- a Certificate in Labour Studies providing state of the art training for union staff and activists
- English at the workplace, a highly unique workplace program to teach immigrant workers how to speak English as their second language along with increasing their participation in and engagement with the union that represented them
New funding helped MLEC to offer workplace literacy programs to:
- English first-language speakers seeking upgrading in reading, writing and math
- the rapidly-growing number of workers losing their jobs due to plant closures and layoffs
The Metro Labour Education Centre opened in the autumn of 1987, operating from a space that had only recently housed the corporate offices of the thriving Massey Ferguson Farming Implements Corporation. This location would become eerily symbolic of the deindustrialization that would soon creep across the downtown Toronto core and, eventually, to the region, province and country.
One by one, factories large and small -- most characterized by the good paying, full time jobs unions had long fought for -- closed down. Huge factories fell silent; streetcars once jammed with industrial workers became empty. MLEC was there to help workers pick up the pieces, offering practical assistance along with the support and advocacy that has been our trademark ever since.
1988 marked the beginning of our long-standing awareness that computer hardware and software are essential communication tools; a vital part of modern literacy. To ensure workers would never be excluded from using them due to a lack of understanding or access, MLEC introduced our pioneering "Technological Literacy - Computer Awareness" programme. Lugging stacks of what would now be considered "ancient" XT computers to workplaces around Toronto, MLEC was among the first to introduce and demystify the use of computers to working people.
A lot has changed over the years but the Labour Education Centre's commitment to basic computer literacy has not! Whether a worker is formally trained in computers, a self-taught plunked or a beginner who wants to keep up with their sons or daughters on the Internet, LEC constantly strives to offer a wide range of computer training that can be used by workers for a myriad of different purposes.
A offshoot of technological, discovered through our English in the Workplace and Adult Basic Education classes in the Aerospace industry was another pioneering workplace course in basic blueprint reading, launched in 1990.
From its beginning, LEC has always been keenly attuned to the needs of the Toronto workers. Then, as now, many workers were people of colour, both newcomers and long-time immigrants to Canada's largest city. To ensure their inclusion in LEC's many educational activities, innovative equality project were initiated in 1989. One important project was the "Mother Tongue Literacy Project" which examined the issues faced by immigrant workers who not only had difficulties with English but also had literacy challenges in their first language.
The Labour Education Centre also engaged in a special labour adjustment research project that examined the impact of plant closures on immigrant women.