European Trade Union Committee for Education
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News from our Partners :
Stressless Project 4th Meeting, September 2012 : "Improving Educators resilience to stress" Find more info on EDU-OSH >>>
2 March : European Equal Pay Day
ETUCE solidarity with Spanish trade unions on this general strike day
The ETUCE sent a letter to all day member organisations in Spain for their participation in in the general strike on 29 March 2012.
All Spanish unions have called their members to join this strong protest action against the labour market reform imposed on Spanish workers by the conservative government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. During the last months the economic situation In Spain has sharply worsened. Unemployment has reached about 24%. Youth unemployment is particularly alarming and is running at about 50%.
ETUCE Committee meets
with European MEPs
On 28 March, the ETUCE Committee met with Ole Christensen and Alejandro Cercas, members of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs at the European Parliament together with 3 more MEPs. The union delegation presented the results of a survey on the impact of the crisis on education, and urged the European Parliament to adopt a resolution on this topic.
Germany: education unionists exchange experiences
at fruitful school leaders’ Congress
The German teachers’ trade union VBE, Verband Bildung und Erziehung, the First German school leaders’ Congress on 16-17 March, In Düsseldorf. More than 1,200 school leaders from all over Germany, as well as Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Italy, gathered to this event, whose theme was “Schools take the lead,” to exchange national and European experiences between school leaders.
ETUCE Vice-President, Jörgen Lindholm, in his contribution to the Congress made a presentation on “Organising school leaders”.
News from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament :
EU COMMISSION ON WRONG PATH WITH OUT-DATED NEO-LIBERAL OUTLOOK WHILE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DEMANDS GROWTH AND INVESTMENT
The EU Commission is not taking the right action to get Europe out of the crisis. This was the main message from Hannes Swoboda, S&D Group President, at the S&D Strasbourg press conference today. "All around the world we hear economic experts and politicians calling for European action for growth and investment. Yet the Commission is deaf to these voices. The Commission must understand that its neo-liberal strategy is out-of-date and will not help us out of the crisis."
The Socialists and Democrats state once more that the narrow focus on austerity cannot be the way ahead. We must fight for an alternative way out of the crisis and come up with different solutions for the people.
CRISIS campaign :
Analysis of the results of the ETUCE Mini-Survey
55 teacher trade unions, covering the sectors of early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, vocational education and training and higher education, and representing 26 EU and 14 non-EU countries, replied to the mini-survey between 17 February and 23 March, 2012.
To read the short report presenting the analysis of the results of the survey >>>
Recruitment and Retention in the education sector as a matter of social dialogue
In March and April 2012, ETUCE and EFEE affiliates met at two regional seminars in Madrid and Vilnius to discuss key challenges in the area of recruitment and retention in the education sector. The seminars were organised as a part of the European social partners in education project “Recruitment and Retention in the education sector, a matter of social dialogue”. The EC funded project has been launched with the aim to develop possible joint recruitment and retention strategies for the education sector at the European level.
A questionnaire based survey was conducted covering all ETUCE and EFEE members in the European Union. At the seminars, preliminary results of the survey were presented. The participants also benefitted from presentations on country cases from the following countries: Malta, Belgium, France, Germany, Scotland, Finland, and Hungary. Furthermore, Godfrey Perera, General Secretary of HOSPEEM, and Mathias Maucher, Policy Officer at EPSU presented their experiences in the area from the health sector highlighting the results obtained being the Code of Conduct on Ethical Cross-Border Recruitment and Retention in the Hospital Sector and the Framework of Actions on Recruitment and Retention adopted by HOSPEEM and EPSU jointly in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
During May and June 2012 four country case studies will be conducted to further enrich the research foreseen in the project. All results will be presented at the final conference scheduled in September 2012 in Brussels.
Joint commitment of the ETUCE / ETUC / ILGA Europe to combat homophobic bullying in schools, in workplaces and in society
On the 2012 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, the European Region of Education International, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe), signed a commitment to strengthen their collaboration at national and European level to prevent and combat jointly homophobia and transphobia at school, in workplaces and in society.
ETUCE Peer Learning Activity and Training Seminar on Gender Stereotypes
Around 50 participants from 18 countries of the European Region came to Brussels to discuss teacher trade union actions challenging gender stereotypes and gender segregation in the labour market during a peer-learning activity (PLA) and a training seminar on 9-10 May, in Brussels.
Martin Rømer, the European Director, underlined that “gender segregation leads men and women to achieve different jobs on the labour market. This is linked to gender stereotypes in the education system. Education unions have a crucial role to play in overcoming gender stereotypes. We seek to raise awareness among teachers on how to challenge gender stereotypes, and help students choose their career path irrespective of stereotypes attached to their gender.”
Both the PLA and the training seminar provided input for the ETUCE guidelines on challenging gender stereotypes in education which will be developed by the project advisory group and discussed and validated at the project closing conference in Warsaw, Poland, on 11-12 September 2012.
22 May 2012 : General strike in Spain
Education unions along with parents’ and students’ associations have called for a historical strike in Spain on this 22 May 22. This strike will cover the whole education sector from Early Childhood Education up to university.
This and other protests have been called for by the Nationwide Platform for State Education (Plataforma Estatal por la Escuela Pública) including unions affiliated to EI (education unions FECCOO, FETE-UGT & STE), as well as students’ organisations, parents’ associations and educational reform groups.
Read the article on EI website
To show your support for the education community in Spain and the struggle for quality state education please go to www.levantatuvoz.es/index.aspx
Bombing in Brindisi, Italy: Sympathy message
On 19 May 2012, a bomb exploded outside a school in the city of Brindisi in the southern part of Italy. The brutal attack killed a 16 year old girl and injured more people seriously.
The ETUCE is shocked by another act of senseless violence against schoolchildren and students in Europe. The circumstances of this coward attack are still unclear. However, many indications suggest links with the mafia. The school, which was the target, is named after the wife of legendary judge Giovanni Falcone who was a symbol of the fight against the mafia. Falcone and his wife were killed in a bomb attack exactly 20 years ago.
To put the lives of innocent children, the future of Italy, as well as their teachers in danger is nothing else than an odious crime.
The ETUCE sharply condemns this bomb attack as well as any form of violence against students and teachers. Such an attack hits ordinary people where it hurts most. The ETUCE expresses its full sympathy and solidarity to the families of the victims in these sorrowful circumstances. It also wishes all Italian people to remain strong and to stand up against injustice, hatred and violence.
The ETUCE fully supports its member organisations in Italy in their fight against the rising social tension in Italy and hope that such a terrible crime will never happen again.
