VOSEB - Full-time programme

The courses (Dutch speaking!) take  place on 30 Fridays in the period from October 2017 to May 2019 on Stadscampus. On school holidays there are no classes.

The full-time course takes two academic  years. The theme of the classes in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 is “Social Justice in a Changing World: Effects of Globalization and Digitalization on Labour”.

As a trade union representative you may be working in an organization which is robotizing or digitalizing its activities. Or you may be facing competition from companies that are automatizing. You stand up for the employees’ interests; employees with different backgrounds who are concerned about their skills, knowledge and jobs. You find yourself to be in an unstoppable revolution of technological innovation. Indeed, for reasons of sustainability, competitive advantages, workability as well as because of gross capitalism and exploitation the production is being robotized and computerized.

At the same time, the rules of employee participation are changing. Your say in matters diminishes as well as your grip on the work conditions of your fellow workers. Apparently you are not the only one because the boss cannot take decisions autonomously either. The power is increasingly in the hands of the shareholders, among other things, because the politicians protect the shareholders’ interests. As a result, citizens, employees and union representatives no longer have much confidence in democracy.

You notice that a gap is growing between employees: between those with a secure contract whose circumstances and conditions you want to protect and those with a temporary or precarious contract, a situation which you want to prevent as much as possible.

What you are actually seeing is that the welfare state which the trade unions built up is being eroded, the very same welfare state that came about by the efforts of craftsmen, farmers and workers who organized themselves during the first industrial revolution in the undertakings.

During the big revolutions in history the trade unions were and continue to be the ones building up and protecting the rights of employees as well as the ones defending the social security system.

That is the reason why VOSEB examines the building blocks of a “Socially Just” Revolution.

During the course the trade unions’ experience with revolutions will be discussed, more specifically:

• when the production changed under the influence of inventions like the steam engine, electricity and communication technology as well as now with the digitalization and robotization;
• when the diversity increased as a result of rural flight and migration as well as now because of economic, political and climate refugees;
• when the democratic system failed because of limited voting rights as well as now because of its elitism;
• when the economic system changed its model from mercantile to liberal, Marxist and Keynesian to neoliberal and the free globalized market;
• when the organization of labour was rationalized with Taylor and Ford and is now innovated with self-steering teams.

In all of these cases the trade unions have always acted to guarantee a socially just society.

On the one hand VOSEB analyses the current changes in the light of the successful past of trade unionism. On the other, the course will be looking for elements to improve employee participation in the undertakings and cooperation between civil-society organizations, to influence public opinion and to develop the power  to shape the current revolution in a socially just manner.

VOSEB Korte Lessenreeks

Arbeidsrecht : over Inspraak en Welzijn op een geglobaliseerde en gedigitaliseerde arbeidsmarkt

Universiteit Antwerpen, Campus Stad, Gr. Kauwenberg, gebouw D, lokaal D 013
11/01, 18/01, 1/02, 8/02 en 22/02

Vorig jaar schonk de ‘korte lessenreeks arbeidsrecht’ aandacht aan de impact van digitalisering op arbeid. De docenten stonden stil bij het statuut van werknemers in de platformeconomie. Dit jaar onderzoekt VOSEB hoe het met inspraak en welzijn gesteld is op de globale en gedigitaliseerde arbeidsmarkt. De casussen ATOS, Ryanair, Thuiszorg en Deliveroo komen uitgebreid aan bod. Die casussen kleuren het Europese en nationale juridische kader, in. Naast de zuiver arbeids-juridische thema’s komen ook andere bekommernissen aan bod, zoals: het criminaliseren van sociale actie en de modernisering van het strafrecht, de flirt (volgens Thomas Decreus) van extreem rechts met links tot zelfs de geopolitieke impact van technologie.  

Inschrijven via het inschrijvingsformulier per e-mail naar isuavoseb@uantwerpen.be of Dominique.Kiekens@uantwerpen.be en dit ten laatste op maandag 7 januari 2019.
Vermeld bij je inschrijving je volledige naam, je (syndicale) functie, de vakbond waarbij je aangesloten bent en je contactgegevens (adres, telefoon en e-mail).

#Inschrijvingsformulier