Education Trade Unions across Europe who are members of ETUCE are coming together to launch a multi-country and multi-channel campaign. The campaign:  Together in the Union – #ForQualityEducation will last for one month (from the 10/05/21 until the 06/06/21).

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness on education trade unions’ work – from here the campaign will seek to engage  teachers and unions in coordinated online activities locally, regionally, nationally and at European level. The overarching goal will be to build a community of education professionals in Europe who are organised in their union and who are subsequently better placed to resist and contest the domination of market mechanisms which have made considerable ground within education policy and provision in recent times.

The campaign, based on the project “Your Turn! Teachers for Trade Union Renewal“, is being launched in the context of a global pandemic that is affecting all dimensions of society. The education sector is no different in this regard: the teachers and other education personnel, as well as the young people are amongst the most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cost of the crisis should not fall on the shoulders of education. Cuts to funding, the ascendancy of market mechanisms within education policy – that are attempting to reduce education to a business ontology, attacks to the role and status of teachers and their unions should not infiltrate the working lives of educators. Individualism and distrust in human solidarity should not break unity and trust in collective action.

ETUCE and its member organisations strongly believe that the unions are the means to advance teachers’ rights and to further the teaching profession. When education trade unions come together, they can create change and shape a better future where teachers’ rights and quality education would become a priority for all.

Today and for the next month, ETUCE and its member organisations invite all union members and teachers to join the campaign. By engaging in the campaign, they will be part of a community of teachers and education professionals all over Europe who seek to develop shared alternatives, free from the tyranny generated by privatisation, to what education should look like.

See here for the main page of the campaign.