Union learning team help workers at Macrae

Union Learning Reps from retail union Usdaw are helping staff at the Macrae’s fish processing plant offering a package of courses aimed at boosting skills.

The 650 staff at the site in Fraserburgh will have paid time off to attend learning roadshows designed to find out what sort of courses they’d like to take. Students will be encouraged to take up an Individual Learning Account worth £200 to pay for them.

Frankie Christie is one of the driving forces behind the innovative scheme after training as a Union Learning Rep and he was keen to include the 150 workers from Russia, Portugal and Poland who work at the plant.

“We’re sitting on a pot of gold with the workforce and these courses will unleash the massive potential here,” Frankie says. “We have a mixed staff here and really wanted to involve our European colleagues and improving language skills is one simple way to do this.”

“But this is also about making sure every member of the team here gets the chance to improve their basic skills from writing and numeracy to even learning a bit of Spanish for the holidays. Many of the people here left school at 16 and haven’t stepped back in a classroom since then so we want to make learning fun and also develop self confidence. “

“We’ve had a very enthusiastic response so far and all the evidence shows that an educated workforce has higher levels of motivation and absenteeism decreases.”

Usdaw is Britain’s biggest retail union and has produced publicity material in English, Russian, Polish and Portuguese designed to reach all the parts of the factory. Frankie Christie and fellow learning rep Beldy Blackhall then recruited Miguel Alves to train as an Union Learning Rep to make sure his Portuguese colleagues could take advantage of the scheme.

“I’m really pleased Usdaw has produced the posters and leaflets in a range of languages which helps make everyone feel involved,” Miguel said. “Most of my friends from Portugal are very keen to improve on their English and computing skills, but the main thing is that we will feel really included in the day to day life of the factory through learning.”

Macrae have been enthusiastic supporters of the scheme from the start offering facilities at the factory for the Workers Educational Association and Banff and Buchan College to advertise courses at the roadshow. The company has also given paid time off for workers to attend the roadshow and insisted on a late night session to target night shift workers.

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Paul Clarke, can be contacted on 0161 224 2804 or at paul.clarke@usdaw.org.uk.

• The learning roadshows take place on Wednesday May 11th (10pm until 12.30am) and Thursday May 12th (7.30am until 7.30pm) in the canteen at Macrae, Fraserburgh.

• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fifth biggest trade union, with over 340,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

• More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.

• Journalists can subscribe to receive Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service.

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