How do Shop Stewards Learn their Job?: Trade Union Training and Representation

Learning to represent people, as shop stewards do, is a complex affair. It is especially so for stewards, as their functions vary widely, both according to rule books and in practice. As Goodman and Whittingham observed: “Few training officers operate without detailed job descriptions, yet that of a steward is particularly difficult to define. They are important communicators but also decision‐makers”. Stewards develop and apply to the job attitudes and skills derived formally or informally from a variety of sources, and one such source is the training provision laid on by the TUC and by individual unions.