International Issues

Teachers have said they will resist any attempt to shorten the six-week school summer holiday. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said any move to cut the traditional summer break would harm children's learning and teachers' well being. The union passed a resolution at its annual conference in Torquay.

Read more: UK: Union stands firm over shorter summer holiday

The EI Executive Board, meeting in Brussels this week, learned with great regret that 25 Turkish trade unionists, members of EGITIM Sen-KESK, which includes the EI affiliate in Turkey, had prison sentences imposed by the Turkish courts for engaging in what would be regarded elsewhere as legitimate trade union activities.

Read more: Turkey Imprisons Trade Unionists

Shamefully in Australia over 1027 children are currently being held in detention - we now have more children in detention then we did under the Howard Government.

Australians everywhere have signed a petition in support of a delegation of young adult refugees who were formerly in detention. They are meeting with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen this week to share their stories, and they need your support.

Please join other Australians in getting behind this campaign and these courageous young people. Australia is better than this, and it's time we hold our Government to account!

Please sign the petition right now at the link below.

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/NoChildrenInDetention

Responding to a question in the Legislative Council, The Minister for Energy , representing the Minister for Education provided some details with regard to the DET allocation of funding for the children of 457 Visa Holders to various schools and IEC's together with lists of schools in receipt of funds and PD for the teachers of the students in question.

The union is keen to know what difference this additional funding has made to the teaching of ELS to “457 visa students”.

If your school is one of those listed as in receipt of funds and/or pd, please advise us, by a short email, how your school is using the allocation and whether or not it is making a discernable difference.

On Tuesday 9 November 2010 Hon Alison Xamon put the following questions to the Minister for Energy, representing the Minister for Education:

Read more: Children of 457 Visa Holders Funding

183 members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union have been charged for allegedly joining the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), an opposition party, based on the fact that the individuals made private donations to the DLP. The authorities have interpreted these contributions as membership fees, despite the protestations of the individuals concerned.

According to the KTU, the teachers made the donations to the political party based on their own private beliefs, and not as KTU affiliates. No KTU member has ever formally joined the DLP.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology made its decision to dismiss the 183 teachers for breaching a political neutrality clause, which teachers and civil servants are expected to abide by under South Korea’s Civil Servants’ Law

Read more: What our International Colleagues are doing

EI is outraged to inform you that our Iranian colleague Farzad Kamangar has been hanged yesterday, with four other Kurds.

This time there was no rumour which would have allowed EI and human rights groups to launch a campaign to save his life.

EI will continue to campaign on behalf of other teacher trade unionists in Iran but will also request clarity on the process that led to Farzad execution while his case was to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

We are currently in discussion with other trade union and human rights group to finetune a strategy and agree on key campaign points.

Once this is finalised, EI will send out a circular to its member organisations to request that they appeal to their MoFa about the situation in Iran.

Read more: Kamangar has been executed

AEU Reps Federal Conference 2010: Report on International Forum, Conference Session 5 Item 23.

Two international guests spoke at this year’s conference, reporting on organising / union sponsored aid projects they have been driving in their respective countries:  Jerome Fernandez, Manager of the Education International (EI) Tsunami Project in Aceh, Indonesia, and Teopista Burungi of Uganda, Branch secretary of Uganda’s education union, the Uganda Teachers’ Association.  Both had inspiring stories to tell about the challenges and the impact of their work .

Jerome Fernandez started up and then managed  the Banda Aceh Tsunami Reconstruction Project, sponsored by Education International (EI), from 2005 to 2009.  The focus of the project was the rebuilding of schools, the training / retraining of teachers in the area and the counselling of survivors.  Jerome oversaw the project from beginning to end, concluding it on time and under budget.   He had been cajoled out of retirement (he had been a retired teacher) to help.

A survey had been done of the extent of the damage caused by the tsunami, which Jerome needed to use as a reference point in order to understand the scale of the task before him.  Key statistics included the following:  116 880 houses destroyed, 693 health care facilities destroyed, 1662 schools damaged, with 46% destroyed, 220 000 people were killed, including 2300 teachers.

Read more: Report on International Forum

On Tuesday 12th January, the small Caribbean nation of Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake.  The capital of Port-au-Prince, a city of 3 million people, lies in ruins, and the Red Cross estimates that 50,000 people could lie dead in the ruins, although other estimates puts the dead at four times that number.

With almost all infrastructure, government and civil society destroyed, search and rescue efforts for missing victims is difficult and relief efforts for the survivors is beset with problems of distribution.

While Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA does not have any projects or staff in Haiti, many unions in the USA and Canada have long experience of working in Haiti, and through their Solidarity Aid Arms, have launched appeals.

Read more: Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Haiti Appeal

South Africa: Update on Sun International dispute : SACCAWU : "The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International has substantially boosted the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities."  So reports Mike Abrahams of the South African union SACCAWU today - read his full report here .

You've sent off over 2,700 messages in the first 24 hours of this campaign -- but we need to send many more.  Please take a moment to tell Sun International to stop harassing and arresting workers and to negotiate an agreement with their union -- send off your message today .

The global union for the food and hotel sector, the IUF , yesterday urged all its affiliates to join the campaign .

Thailand/Philippines: Send a Christmas card to Triumph International Unhappy snowman. We've received an urgent appeal from the Clean Clothes Campaign to support the 3,660 workers who have been sacked by Triumph International in Thailand and the Philippines.  This is not just a case of workers losing their jobs, which is bad enough -- it's a company deliberately targeting profitable factories in which unions are strong, in a bid to break the union.  The Campaign has done up a " Christmas card " which you can send off with a single click.

Read more: Urgent actions from around the world

On this Human Rights Day, the International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners (INSPP) calls attention to the violation of the human rights of Colombia's political opposition and its supporters.  The Colombian government is waging a campaign to criminalize critical thinking-a campaign that paves the way for transnational access to Colombia's resources, underwritten with more than (US) $7 billion in the US funded Plan Colombia.

Of special concern is the case of Liliany Patricia Obando Villota, undergoing her trial process at this very moment.  She was jailed the very week she released a report on the murders of more than 1,500 members of Fensuagro, Colombia's largest union of farmers and farm workers.  Liliany is the first person to be arrested and stand trial as part of the farc-politica.  This is a process attempting to connect members of the political and social opposition to the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) based on evidence contained in computers allegedly belonging to Commandant Raúl Reyes.

Read more: Liliany Obando Colombian Political Prisoners