gofundme?
Iām guessing you mean a way to fund to establish the union.
Usually union members pay union dues
I apologize for any confusion earlier. Itās important to have a starting point for these kinds of discussions, and in this case, the focus is on English teachers in various educational settings. Thank you for allowing me to clarify.
Iām not opposed to sourcing funds from GoFundMe, but traditionally, unions rely on membership dues for financial support. After all, a union is essentially a collective of its members. Initially, volunteer efforts could suffice, but even when utilizing volunteers, there are still expenses for basic materials and services. While a dedicated office space may not be essential, thereās a need for workspacesāsometimes these could be in a home setting, but shared offices can also be beneficial.
Yes, thatās why I said
I was a steward for a few years, volunteer
Hi Trent, Iād be very interested to hear if anything comes of this. Taiwan truly needs more action from all workers whether domestic or foreign, as labour rights mostly seem to be something which an envelope full of cash to the right politician can easily circumvent. Everyone benefits when workers stand together to help each other. If you start putting something together then please get in touch, Iād be happy to help in any way I can.
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Its not, Although its great to see people fighting for there rights in the workplace!
I heard a group of English teachers working for British Council are now collaborating with THE union for a collective bargain on salary.
https://www.theunion.org.tw/
Perhaps you can reach out to them and get some ideas to move forward.
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Apologies if I am mistaken but this is salespitch 101 type talk. Just seems like a way for them to profit. The idea of foreign rights is good. But the sales pitch seems ultra suspect to be honest
Again, apologies if I am incorrect in my interpretation of the tone of this threads direction.
Hi Trent, have you made any more progress towards this? I think perhaps one needs to first get a rough idea of how much money such an organisation would need monthly. For any full time staff and materials or facilities. Then prepare some kind of (working) mission statement to hold oneself to. Finally, estimate how much an individual teacher might be willing to pay to be part of it, then you know how many teachers to get firm commitments from to make a real go of it. If you do give it a go, Iād be happy to give some hours as a volunteer.
I think Taiwanese education employers take advantage of our lack of understanding of our rights and the difficulties we have in defending them as foreigners.
With salaries so low, even if this got off the ground, would Johnny ESL want to pay a portion on union fees? These usually range in global contexts, from about 1200NT to 8000NT a month in various locales.
Taking a quick look I see this:
https://theunion.org.tw/member/payment_en.php
So, 1000NT for a year is way lower than your guesstimateā¦
I question the efficacy of such a union that has no foreigners on its Executive, and that charges such low fees given dwindling enrollment. Would CUPE in Canada be effective if it charged such low fees or didnāt have a truly diverse board. This union is probably effective for Taiwan uni teachers, but they already have family support, local networks. Wouldnāt a new union movement in Taiwan want to protect the most vulnerable?
Theyāve already managed to get back pay for their part time teachers for paid vacation that was withheld. All you buxiban teachers get that, if you didnāt know.
CUPE in Canada are all paid fairly high already and the main issues for them is fighting the teachers union. Not at all relatable to the taiwanese situation.
Huh? The Canadian Union of Public Employees fights Teachers Unions? They are often in solidarity, no?
Not in the past. folks like teachers Assistants often get jeaolous/egotistical that have to be in CUPE and not the teachers union etc. Back when in BC teachers union was going for 40% plus raises and less work (thatās on top of already excellent pay) CUPE was fighting for 3ish % over a few years and the give was saying, fuck nah. There were a lot of hard feelings then.
Certainly they sometimes support/accept each others picket lines. I think tensions get high when teachers are so entitled it becomes unbearable for nearly everyone. When they are reasonable, things tend to beā¦reasonable.
I admit, I was being a tad hyperbolic/exaggerating. Obviously fighting the teachers union is their main fight haha. Fighting the government is. Same with most unions.