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.
Education International has written to its Greek affiliates the Greek Primary Teachers Federation (DOE) and Federation of Secondary Teachers of Greece (OLME) in support of their demands for adequate funding for quality education.
EI’s message of solidarity with the Teachers of Greece
Lebanese teachers’ unions estimate that 25 teachers were among the approximately 1,000 civilians killed in this summer’s attacks by Israeli forces. About 50 schools were completely destroyed and 500 more were severely damaged.
Lebanese teachers suffered heavy losses in summer of war
Two teachers were arrested and detained on 23 September for being members of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA). One of the teachers had already suffered severe injuries, at the hands of security officers, earlier this year.
Ethiopia: the persecution of unionised teachers continues
EI wrote to the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, on 14 Sep to condemn the assassination of another three teachers in August this year. That makes a total of 22 teachers murdered in the country since the beginning of 2006.
Stop murdering teachers in Colombia!
EI strongly supports the candidacy of Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam on behalf of its affiliate, the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), for the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
EI supports the candidacy of Prof. Mesfin Wolde-Mariam for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
In a strongly-worded letter to the President Robert G. Mugabe, EI demands that the Zimbabwean government respect the trade union right of all workers.
EI joins protest against anti-union repression in Zimbabwe
For the second time this year, security forces have disbanded a constitutional meeting of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA). EI, which represents education workers around the world, wrote to the Ethoipian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi telling his government to stop harassing the teacher union.
EI urges Ethiopian government to stop harassment of teacher union
As part of the Global Labour University network, EI would like to inform its members that the next academic year of Global Labour University is now open for applications. Two Master prgrammes on Labour and Globalisation for trade unionists are offered in 2007-2008 by the network, formed by the international...
International Master Programmes for Trade Unionists now open for Application
The General Union for Palestinian Teachers (GUPT), an EI affiliate, has announced that it will start an open-ended strike on 2 Sep, the first day of the school year, over unpaid wages.
Palestinian teachers to strike over unpaid wages
On November 9, 2005, Mrs. Mulunesh Abebayehu was arrested, without warning, at the junior secondary school where she teaches and taken to the notorious Kality Prison in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian colleagues have the courage to keep union alive
For the second time this year, Ethiopian authorities have disrupted a General Assembly of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association and forcibly shut it down.
Ethiopian authorities disrupt teachers’ General Assembly
EI strongly protests against the killing of children in the recent air force bombings in Sri Lanka. Up to 61 girls were killed and about a hundred more injured in a raid on the Sencholai children’s home in the Mullaithivu district in northern Sri Lanka. The area is among those...
EI deplores killing of Sri Lankan students
Randall Howard, General Secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union, will be the new president of the International Transport Workers' Federation. That makes the ITF the second global union federation, after Education International, to elect a South African trade unionist as president.
ITF holds 41st Congress in Durban
Unable to meet in their home country due to high risk to their personal safety, leaders of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA) gathered in the Netherlands last week, thanks to support from Education International and member organizations.
Ethiopian teacher leaders reunited with exiled union president
For the past 15 years, Education International and member organizations such as the Dutch teachers’ union AOb and the National Union of Teachers of England and Wales have actively supported the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association. Why the need for this solidarity? Because the ETA has suffered ongoing repression by a government...
Trade union rights at risk in Ethiopia
As many as 37 000 teachers, who are members of EI affiliate, the "Papua New Guinea Teachers' Association" (PNGTA), remain on strike in the country's national capital district despite the threat of severe penalties if they don't return to work. They began their action on 10 July over the non-payment...
Papua New Guinea: Teachers on indefinite strike
In a letter sent to the government of Mexico on 29 June, EI condemns the use of any form of violence against striking teachers. The message is sent in the light of the police's forceful eviction of strikers on 14 June.
Mexico: EI condemns the use of violence against striking teachers!
EI affiliate the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA), and the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) is postponing the strike due to be held today, until further notice.
Cambodia: Teacher strike postponed