This episode was transcribed by Sonix AI. It’s learning but still needs remedial attention.
Ep 34: Teacher Union Overreach
Phil Dye: Well, hello everyone, and welcome to Marking the Role episode 34. My name is Phil Dye. I'm your host and today we'll be looking at teacher unions and whether teacher unions actually are doing their job these days. It's true that long time members of unions are now either shifting their union membership or dumping it completely, and we'll look at why that might be. First of all, though, about 20 years ago, Billy Bragg was singing this.
“Our brothers and our sisters. Many far off lands there. Is power in a union.”
Phil Dye: Now. It was a great fan of Billy Bragg. I must have seen him about eight times. And in those days this was in the days just after Margaret Thatcher. Yes, the union was very, very powerful. But you'd wonder what is happening to unions these days. I asked some teachers what the role of a union was supposed to be in 2023. What's the what's the job of your teachers union?
Teacher 1: It's to protect my rights as a worker for that employer, and in particular, to look out for my health and safety at all times.
Teacher 2: I think they need to have a long, hard look at themselves and say, what is our role in 2023? Unions should be the voice of the workers on what's working and what's not, and that's been lost in pay and condition and enterprise agreement negotiations.
Teacher 3: To support the workers.
Teacher 4: Safety is the first. I think that's the that's the thing that's been neglected with the unions because they've been pushing a lot of different things.
Teacher 5: Major role of the union is to negotiate workplace agreements for its members. The latest agreement by the Victorian AEU didn't seem to achieve much.