We’ve been sent The ELT Worker No.4. It looks great and you can download it here. This issue contains:
- a receptionist blowing the whistle on what happens behind those shiny language school doors
- an activist with the new TEFL Workers’ Union in London explaining how people there are getting organised
- the new adventures of TEFL Tony the torso-less teacher
We’d like to blog our support of this attempt to raise awareness of the crappy working conditions that are endemic across the ELT sector. For more info on the (new!) TEFL Workers’ Union check out their Facebook page – which has the following info about what happened when teachers at Delphin language school got organised:
Prior to unionisation, Delfin contracts were copied-and-pasted templates off the internet that, in many instances, didn’t meet basic legal minimums. After a year-long campaign, the teachers now have paid meetings and CPD training sessions, five paid sick days, a pay structure and contracts that guarantee a minimum of 15 hours a week. With union support, the teachers also won back pay and a pay increase for three teachers who’d been unfairly denied a rise.
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We’d also like to thank Scott Thornbury for recently coming out in support of further professionalisation and unionisation. If only more people with ‘voice’ within ELT would come forward and support the grassroots initiatives of hard-working teachers then perhaps we might see some deeper change.
And the message here is clear. If you want to improve your working lives, get organised and join a union, people! As the TEFL Workers’ Union say on Twitter:
We like our students. We like our jobs. We like our workmates. We don’t like struggling to pay the bills. We don’t like insecure employment. We don’t like being treated like we’re disposable.
So if you don’t like being treated as disposable then get involved, get talking to your workmates tomorrow, and take action!
For advice, information, and support on organising in your own context follow the TEFL Workers’ Union on Twitter (@TeflUnion) and check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/teflworkers
Solidarity,
Eds.
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