Ei-iE

The 10th Education International (EI) World Congress meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 29 July to 2 August 2024, notes that:

1. CONSIDERING the capture of democratic regimes through an increase in neoliberal policies in the region, characterised by the expropriation of wealth (oil, gas, mining, state-owned enterprises), the elimination of social and labour rights, the privatisation of essential public services (education, health and social security), the destruction of the environment and the large-scale deregulation and financialisation of economies;
2. CONSIDERING social organisations in our countries have stood firmly against this process, especially the union movement and in particular unions in the education sector, constantly being targeted by being criminalised, prosecuted and having freedom of association limited (through attacks on trade union organisations, being denied the right to collective bargaining and unable to fully exercise the right to strike in its different forms);
3. CONSIDERING that, at a time when freedom of association and the right to strike have been seriously called into question and limited globally, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and in line with an agreement reached between workers and a considerable number of governments, is taking the matter to the International Court of Justice to counter attempts to limit their scope;
4. CONSIDERING that recently the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession included in its recommendations that “Governments should fully implement enabling rights for education and decent work for teachers, in line with international standards, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, freedom of expression, freedom of thought and academic freedom” (recommendation 2 of 59).

The 10th World Congress recommends:

5. Analysing which mechanisms and actions can monitor whether Freedom of Association is being fully implemented, the latter being understood as the right to create and develop trade union organisations, the right to fully exercise collective bargaining and the right to strike;
6. Similarly, organise training on legal frameworks, international conventions, and their monitoring mechanism and ensure there are mechanisms for giving guidance and assistance to member organisations, particularly by sponsoring complaints before international organisations, when these rights have been violated;
7. Promoting coordinated action with other trade union groupings at regional and global level to denounce rights violations and to defend these rights, particularly in the ILO;
8. Analysing the relevance and possibility of creating a political and technical team to work on implementing the aforementioned actions, as well as promoting its establishment at regional level.