The Foreign Teacher’s Association of Taiwan’s First Annual Conference will be held in TAIPEI on AUGUST 26, 2006. Attendance should include upwards of 85% of the Foreign teachers of taiwan. (7,000+ attendees). For more information on our association, email me at christopherveal@hotmail.com. Board member position available. Membership is free for teachers. We set the standard of good school/teacher relationships and ENFORCE that standard (special thanks to our legal council team, you guys are great).
7,000 people? Where is it being held? Who’s paying. What’s it for? What’s the agenda?
If its being held just six weeks or so from now and you have 7,000 people coming, I presume you have the itinerary pretty much worked out by now – that’s a LOT of people to cater for.
Free for teachers? so other people have to pay. How much? And why would non-teachers want to pay for membership of a teacher’s association?
You need to supply far more information if you hope to attract numbers like that!
And specify what you mean by English teachers. Do you mean only those who are certified in their home countries and therefore working for government-run schools or is it open to those who might have nothing more than a BA in underwater basket weaving but is running a class of preschoolers from a basement school?
F-TAT’s purpose is to be the voice of the foregn teacher in taiwan. One foreigner’s opinion would only end up getting that teacher fired and replaced. Everyone knows that the most valuable asset in a school is its teacher. A unified voice comprised of 100% of the revenue generating assets of an entire industry(us teachers) has an EXRORDINARY amount of power. Just imagine how much power we as teachers command. The challenges that F-tat is trying to accomplish are:
Have an elected board of teachers that will create propositions in response to the members needs.
Attain a member body consisting of the majority of the Foreign teaching population of taiwan that will vote on propositions drawn together by the board. First on our agenda is to create a"teacher’s bill of rights". Common topics to vote on are the usual: conflict of interest between management and teaching, deposits and how they are used,spent,taken,held,returned,etc, mutual agreement on consistency in hours of work per week, etc. With enough press involvement and local legislative support, our “teacher’s bill of rights” could be ratified by the government, and teachers will finally have a say in the law that governs us.
Create a certification system. Schools that intend to employ foreigners will need to be certified to be in compliance with the ethics standard set by the association. Its a sort of promise to recognize the “teacher’s bill of rights”. (big corporations with hundreds of locations will need to get each location certified.
This is a grass roots organization in taiwan in its infant stages. We have a long journey ahead of us, but our mission is clear:
We must define our rights.
We must defend our rights.
As for who can join and what languages, etc… the association is meant to represent foreign teachers, regardless of what or where they teach. Yes, teacher membership is free, the teachers are who we are trying to protect.
[quote=“christopherveal”]F-TAT’s purpose is to be the voice of the foregn teacher in taiwan. One foreigner’s opinion would only end up getting that teacher fired and replaced. Everyone knows that the most valuable asset in a school is its teacher. A unified voice comprised of 100% of the revenue generating assets of an entire industry(us teachers) has an EXRORDINARY amount of power. Just imagine how much power we as teachers command. The challenges that F-tat is trying to accomplish are:
Have an elected board of teachers that will create propositions in response to the members needs.[/quote] You realize that this is a country that is ran on the basis of guanxi? To have an elected board of teachers it would be wise to have a person who is Taiwanese and has mucho guanxi, otherwise you are spitting in the wind.
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2. Attain a member body consisting of the majority of the Foreign teaching population of Taiwan that will vote on propositions drawn together by the board. First on our agenda is to create a"teacher’s bill of rights". Common topics to vote on are the usual: conflict of interest between management and teaching, deposits and how they are used,spent,taken,held,returned,etc, mutual agreement on consistency in hours of work per week, etc. With enough press involvement and local legislative support, our “teacher’s bill of rights” could be ratified by the government, and teachers will finally have a say in the law that governs us.[/quote]Again guanxi is needed here. There are laws here, but are they enforced? No they aren’t. Who is going to ensure that these laws, even if they are passed are going to be enforced? Paging Dr.Chewycorns…
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3. Create a certification system. Schools that intend to employ foreigners will need to be certified to be in compliance with the ethics standard set by the association. Its a sort of promise to recognize the “teacher’s bill of rights”. (big corporations with hundreds of locations will need to get each location certified.[/quote] Ethics? Sorry don’t mean to rain on your earnest parade but there are none here.
We are currently working on connections with surety agencies to bond both teacher and school. Hopefully we can get rid of the “out of pocket” expense. Also, in reply, yes we do have friends in high places. Both judicial and legislative. for security purposes, their names cannot be released just yet. politicians will continue to be poilticians, as they say.
[quote=“R. Daneel Olivaw”]I was under the distinct impression that any sort of “teachers union” would be illegal. Foreign workers are not allowed to organize labor.
I am not aware of the law, this is second-hand information.[/quote]
The law as it stands is that foreign workers are allowed to join labour unions but not to become union officials. It is a key demand of some labour groups that foreign workers should be able to stand for election as union officials. Despite the fact that the law has been as I just stated for many years, the Secretary General of the Labour Rights Association told me that he has never heard of a single instance of a foreign worker joining a Taiwanese labour union. Presumably the main reasons are ignorance of the law and fear of victimisation by employers. In my opinion, Taiwanese labour unions and related organisations must share responsibility because they have not actively tried to recruit migrant workers as members.
About four years ago I set up a web site for foreign-language editors in Taiwan that now has 78 members but next to no activity. I would like to see some kind of organisation arise from this effort and eventually to establish some kind of relationship with the Taiwanese journalists’ union. Anyone who wants to assist me in my efforts - please join the web site and get in touch with me.
I must say that at the moment christopherveal’s putative association looks like wishful thinking but you’ve got to start somewhere - I wish you luck.
loopholes my friend, loopholes. There is no country in the world that doesnt have laws full of them big enough for us 5 to get on an elephant and parade through (although that would look mighty awkward). Location is tba, we are thinking campus-like location.
I am always thoroughly entertained by these new posters (whatever happened to that union started by some uppity prof foreigners at Academia Sinica a few years ago?) that think they can start a union here.
