Ei-iE

The member-led Executive Board of EI met in Brussels on 26-28 October to agree strategic policy decisions that will guide the work of the global union over the next period of time.

New Board Members

Among the decisions the Board agreed was to appoint Randi Weingarten, President of AFT (USA), and Patrick Roach, Deputy General Secretary of NASUWT (UK), as new Board members. Randi and Patrick fill the vacancies created by the retirement of Ed McElroy, former President of AFT, and Jerry Bartlett, former Deputy General Secretary of NASUWT.

EI Progress Report

EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, gave the Board a progress report of EI activity since their last meeting. He hailed the growing number of member unions organising events for World Teachers’ Day and Global Action Week, and noted how this increase in activity correlated with the impact of the economic crisis on the education sector where budget cuts, reform measures and efforts to de-professionalise the workforce were gaining traction. Fred described the breadth of EI’s response to these challenges facing member unions, including the stepping up of advocacy at G8/20 level; with financial institutions, UN agencies and OECD, to confront the serious risk of education quality being damaged.

Fred also documented the impact on education unions and members from human rights violations. He described EI’s response of lodging formal complaints with inter-governmental agencies and organising missions to affected countries to assist affiliate members. The Board heard details of EI’s humanitarian aid programs in Haiti and Pakistan, as well as EI’s trade union education programs in Central Asia and the Middle East, and the impact these initiatives were having. Fred praised EI’s EFAIDS program, which concludes in 2010, and its success in training 300,000 classroom teachers in HIV-AIDS prevention across 49 countries.

The Board also received reports of conference of affiliates in OECD countries and the Higher Education and Research Conference, before accepting recommendations from the Early Childhood Education Task Force and Task Force on Vocational Education and Training.

World Congress, July 2011

EI President, Susan Hopgood, reminded Board members of their agreed theme for the World Congress: Building the Future through Quality Education. She led discussion on the outcomes of an earlier consultation with affiliate organisations about a comprehensive statement of EI education policy and the Board agreed to circulate a revised draft for further consultation with member organisations before submitting it to the World Congress.

The Board agreed to present policy resolutions to the World Congress on a range of topics including: the future of the teaching profession; the economic crisis; climate change; funding of public education; migration; support staff; trade unionism; diversity, equality and solidarity.

The Board also agreed resolutions would be drafted to address developments in each region and proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws to strengthen EI structures.

ITUC and Council of Global Unions

The Board welcomed at their meeting the new ITUC General Secretary, Sharan Burrow, herself a former EI Vice-President, who pledged full support for EI’s work to achieve quality education. She lambasted media attacks on education unions in the USA and called for joint action to counter the unrelenting cuts in public expenditure which are undermining public services. Sharan invited EI to participate in a campaign against such policies which the ITUC will launch early in 2011.

The Board received a report of the Council of Global Unions’ conference on Quality Public Services and noted the unprecedented Charter and Action Plan presented by Global Union Federations.

Teachers’ Migration

The Board tackled the challenges associated with teachers’ migration in all regions and established a taskforce of member unions to begin the process of developing EI strategy to end the exploitation of migrant teachers. The Board mandated the officers to look at the implication of developing a global network of migrant teachers using EI’s website.

Support for Northern Cyprus Members

The Board expressed its solidarity with the Cyprus Turkish Teachers’ Trade Union and the Cyprus Turkish Secondary Education Teachers' Union whose members in Northern Cyprus are facing a two year prison sentence for protesting at funding cuts in education

Further Information

More information on the issues addressed by the Executive Board can be downloaded below.