ETUCE Action Plan on Organising and Renewal: Strengthen each to fortify all

Published:

Aiming to build the collective strength of education trade unions by increasing solidarity and improving coordination among ETUCE member organisations to build even stronger and more democratic unions at national level, through increased member participation, capacities and actions intended to bring about change, the ETUCE Committee adopted the ETUCE Action Plan on Organising and Renewal, at its meeting on 12-13 October 2020.

The Action Plan recognizes the challenges that transformations in society bring to the working lives of teachers and other education personnel, and to the influence and impact of trade unions at the bargaining table, as well as to their ability to shape public policy to achieve quality education for all. To reverse the trend of a potential erosion in membership and reduced member involvement, the Action Plan builds upon the experience of several education trade unions across Europe who have refocused the union organisational capacity around the most important force they have: their current and potential membership.

The ETUCE Action Plan on Organising and Renewal marks a clear commitment for enhanced cooperation, permanent dialogue, joint reflection, and mutual learning between ETUCE member organisations to ensure that all education trade unions are supported in their efforts to address within their structures, issues of renewal and organising.

ETUCE members’ joint efforts to strengthen their capacity to reach in to their existing membership and/or those groups that are marginalised within the union; to reach out to un-organised teachers and other education personnel; and to reach beyond to the wider context of trade unions and of other people in the education community are to develop around four organising themes:

  • Organising for equalities: mobilising the under-represented
  • Organising around ideas and campaigns
  • Organising around work, community, and society
  • Organising around professional issues

At the core of each theme, a set of agreed complementary actions to build trade union power recognise the need for an increased capacity to:

  • Analyse to understand the context and develop the direction
  • Democratise change through open communication and engagement
  • Shift thinking and develop skills through education

The Action Plan builds upon the experiences of ETUCE member organisations who have gathered in the frame of the 2-year project ‘Your Turn: Teachers for Trade Union Renewal’ (VS/2018/0358) to discuss what is needed in each context to support the individual capacity of members to act collectively and to engage within the union to achieve progress, as well as to grow collectively as a European moment through networking and information sharing. The project has been co-financed by the European Union and led by ETUCE in partnership with education trade unions from Estonia (EEPU), Germany (FEW), Italy (FLC-CGIL), the Netherlands (AOb), Poland (ZNP), Spain (FECCOO) and the UK (UCU).

To read the Action Plan on Organising and Renewal, please click here

To read the Research report Your Turn: Teachers for Trade Union Renewal, please click here

To read the Your Turn: Handbook for Critical Reflection, please click here