All teachers and education support personnel have the right to organise and be part of a union that represents and defends their values and interests. However, around the world, education unions are facing serious attacks and operate in increasingly challenging and hostile environments. Revitalising unions, building their power by boosting membership and active participation and maximising impact is the way forward.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), one of EI’s national affiliates, has organised a meeting to demand the release of the kidnapped Nigerian girls and to support the girls’ right to education.
Ghana: Education unionists’ solidarity with abducted Nigerian school girls
Collective bargaining and the right to strike have become contested issues at the International Labour Conference over the last few years. At this year’s conference, from 28 May to 12 June, trade unions from all over the world are working together to defend what they see as fundamental workers’ rights.
International Labour Conference: A lot at stake for trade unionism
Teachers under siege in British Columbia have found a supportive union ally in their fight against aggressive government tactics as an imposed lockout disrupts classrooms across the province.
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation stands up for locked out BC teachers
EI and its European region, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), have launched an urgent action appeal, calling for solidarity and support for Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Balkans: EI launches urgent action appeal
An EI delegation is all set to participate in the annual conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) from 28 May to 12 Juneto promote decent working conditions for teachers and to advocate for quality education as an enabler to all other rights promoted by the ILO.
EI to put education on the agenda at the International Labour Conference
Taking the stage in Berlin, the world’s education ambassador treated trade union delegates at the International Trade Union Confederation Congress to a rousing speech to stress their role in creating quality, accessible education around the world.
UN Envoy Gordon Brown pushes education to top of trade union agenda
Taking the stage in Berlin, the world’s education ambassador treated trade union delegates at the International Trade Union Confederation Congress to a rousing speech to stress their role in creating quality, accessible education around the world.
UN Envoy Gordon Brown pushes education to top of trade union agenda
The EI Asia-Pacific regional office organised two intermediate trade union workshops of 28 participants each for members of its national affiliate, the Republican Trade Union Committee of Education and Scientific Workers (RC-STES). The first one was held in Kayarakum from 2-4 April, the second one in Kurgantube from 6-8 April.
Tajikistan: programme on trade union principles and leadership
Education International has urged the ILO and UNESCO to take immediate and effective action with respect to the attacks on schools in the Nigerian states Borno, Yobe and Adamawa by Boko Haram, a group of islamist extremists opposed to “Western education”.
EI demands urgent action in Nigeria
Educators and science employees took to the streets of Riga Monday to demand additional state financing for effective education reforms.
Latvia: Union mobilises for pay increase
The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) has strongly rejected the Task Force for Teaching Excellence report released by Alberta’s Education Minister, considering it as an assault on teachers.
Canada: Task force recommendations undermine teachers, says union
Children with disabilities are more likely to be out of school than any other group of children. The Global Campaign for Education’s action week from 4-10 May 2014 aims to challenge the exclusion faced by disabled children in realising their right to education.
Global action week: equal rights for children with disabilities
Turkish unions are making it clear that they will move ahead with peaceful celebrations on the first of May, despite a government prohibition of events in Istanbul’s most iconic square.
Turkish unions demand their right to celebrate May Day peacefully
Attacks against teachers’ rights and the threats to public education in Honduras have been denounced at a meeting last week of the Federation of Honduran Teachers’ Organisations (FOMH) and the Direct Contact Mission of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Honduras: ILO Mission assesses union rights violations
To mark May Day, Education International is calling on governments worldwide to respect teachers’ human and trade union rights.
May Day: EI and partners call for respect of teacher trade union rights
The Union Coordination Committee (UCC) comprising Lebanon’s four EI national affiliates – the Ligue des professeurs de l’enseignement secondaire public du Liban (LPESPL), the Teachers Syndicate of Lebanon (TSL), the Comité des enseignants techniques officiels (CETO), and the Public Primary Schools Teachers League in Lebanon (PPSTLL) - along with other...
Lebanon: strike follows Government failure to decide educators’ salary increase
Moldova’s Prime Minister has made a personal pledge to find the sources needed to increase teacher pay by 1 May following a week of mass teacher-led protests outside of parliament.
EI throws support behind Moldovan union to kick start salary negotiations
Social workers are more likely to come to work while sick than the average worker in EU28, a recent Eurofound report shows. The report compares working conditions for social workers in kindergartens, schools, youth services, and social care with the EU28 as a whole.
Social workers more likely to work while sick