Hi everyone and welcome to our EDM8004 blog site. As you may have seen in the Assessment area on StudyDesk, our course is going to help pilot a new ePortfolio platform (CampusPress) this semester. I am excited to be doing this as I will be learning alongside you, developing my own ePortfolio using the same platform.
As part of the trial, I thought it might be nice for us to have a place to share our thoughts about each week’s Industry Presentation. This goes beyond the assessment task, to actually talking about the implications of each presentation for you as a beginning (or soon to be beginning) teacher.
This week’s presentation was by the two education unions in Queensland. The QTU supporting governmental school teachers and the Independent Education Union, supporting those in other schools.
I was a QTU member throughout my career. For me, it was insurance against litigation. However, for me as a young teacher and someone not politically minded, I had always seen unions as a bit unsavoury and militant. Having said that, I most certainly benefited from the union’s cause and saw a raft of improvements due to their influence.
As a principal though, I was sort of caught between a rock and a hard place. When there were strikes, for example, someone had to be at school to look after the students that came in. I also had a young family and mortgage and could not afford to lose a day’s pay.
I’d love to hear your experiences and opinions. Please reply to this post if you would like to join the conversation.
As someone who has not previously been a member of a union and having worked in the private business sector until now, I can clearly see the importance and benefits of union membership. Unfortunately we can never rely on conditions and benefits staying as they are without united representation and this presentation clearly shows how important teaching unions have been for their members. I am delighted to now be an associate member of the QTU and value the support and backing this gives our profession.
Great to hear that the presentation spurred you on to joining the union.
During my first placement, my supervising teacher told me that I must be a union member because of legal support. Her husband, also a teacher, was on a school camp and a student hurt themselves and all was ok until one of the parents realised they could maybe get money out of the situation and the unions supported her husband and dealt with everything.
My starting salary as a chemical engineer was $45000 in 2004 and coming off a student budget I thought that was pretty fantastic. To be on the teaching award salary is not much above that 17 years later so definitely appreciative of the unions assisting in higher salaries.
The cost of being a union member I really don’t see it as being too much considering the benefits. Think about how much you pay for car insurance every year and that is only the loss of your car. The loss of your teaching license or the costs to defend yourself has the potential to be huge. It’s not worth the risk in my opinion. I’m definitely going to be looking into the associate membership.
Seeing membership as insurance is a good way to go. The other thing to remember is that it is considered a business expense and is, therefore, tax deductible.
It would be interesting to know if union dues can be salary sacrificed. I am not sure about this and guess it depends on your employer’s conditions.
I am not particularly fond of unions – they never seem to be fighting battles that I consider worthwhile. Membership in many ways is akin to a large-scale prisoners’ dillema – if enough other people are in the unions, then I get many of the benfits of the union existing no matter what.
However, as Rod has pointed out, membership does appear to be a cheap form of legal insurance…
Hi Joe, I totally get where you are coming from. The bottom line for me was always legal.
This was a big eye opener. I have had discussions with a previous mentor about not putting yourself in a position where students can claim that you have unfairly provided extra work or information that can be viewed as an advantage over others. But I did not realise that you could be suspended without being given the chance to defend yourself. I am not apart of a union with my current job because I do not earn enough to make it worth while. However after watching these videos, I will be considering it now.
Yes, Brandy, it is worth considering as it does cover you while you are on prac and does not cost you anything until you are employed as a teacher.
I actually work in a school currently. Unions are a new thing for me as I have previously worked in other industries that are non unionised. My point I would like to make is that there are so many more components to running a successful school than just the teachers. There are unions for teacher aides, cleaners and admin officers. These unions don’t fight for the same things at the same time. It would be good if they all worked together in a way to ensure all components of schools are addressed equally and fairly.
I see at times ‘rules for one & rules for others’ type of attitudes amongst the staff as opposed to a united front for the school.
That is just an observation I have seen.
This is a very interesting point. You are quite correct that the QTU only work on behalf of teachers and it would be good to have a united front in terms of teacher aides, cleaners and so on.
As I recall, the Independent Union does cover TAs and other ancillary staff in independent schools. I wonder if this works for them in terms of better conditions for ALL staff members?
As a registered nurse, I was a union member, as were most of my colleages. It was a no brainer for me… who doesn’t want better work conditions and an increased salary?
As a pre-service teacher I hadn’t really considered being part of the union. I’m not sure why… I guess, there are so many other things to think about when preparing to start a new career. I totally appreiate the information provided in the presentation. It really shows that big changes are possibe when people band together in unity.
I think many pre-service teachers are sort of unaware that this is even something that they can do. I know I will be letting my first year undergraduate pre-service teachers know about it from here on in.
My background is in Defence (Army), so I have no previous experience in union membership (there are no unions for Australian Defence Force members). I was impressed with the presentation – the range of services unions offer and their fees are very reasonable (for some reason I expected them to be much higher). Their legal services in particular make membership a compelling offer.
I had never thought about defence not having a union, but in some ways I guess that does make perfect sense in a chain of command environment.
Free membership for pre-service teachers is a very good deal and on worth consideration.
I honestly almost skipped this week’s videos as I thought I had no interest in joining a union. I am so glad I didn’t. Sadly, in this day and age the reality of requiring legal advice/support at some stage during your teaching career seems far too common. The major benefit aside from job contract support would be the legal support. It seems like a small price to pay for the level of support they provide. Being able to stand up for yourself in the work place can be very daunting but with the backing of such long standing and respected institutions would help me to feel professional and justified.
Hi all
I’m late to this blog and I apologise. Trying to catch up today!
I had the opportunity to learn about the Queensland Teachers Union on my last prac. My supervisor sat down with me and we went through it, and she even helped me become a member (which is free while I’m a student.)
I think in a general sense unions are a good thing, however from my experience there seems to be a bit of a negative attitude towards teachers unions from people who are not teachers. Which is a shame.
I agree with others in their comments regarding legal issues and I think being in a profession where we have the opportunity to be protected is rare, especially in this age of work instability.
Cheers