The UK IWW's Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Workers' Union is building power among usually isolated educators. We republish these updates about recent organizing victories and protests.
I love this! My short experience as an online TEFL teacher was that it was a very precarious position. I had to open my schedule in the middle of the night and often had only one or two students for 30 minute slots each night. The pay per hour wasn't bad, but they put all the responsibility on the teacher to compete with all the other teachers on the platform for students, and often meant prep time outside of paid teaching time. The closest comparison I can think of is Uber - including the fact that you're responsible for your laptop, internet, home office, supplies, etc. Gig workers of all types need unions!
There's an effort in the IWW to formally charter an Industrial Union (IU) administration for education workers (IU 620 in our industrial taxonomy), which unsurprisingly I'm a part of. We want to set up Industrial Union Branches (IUBs) for education workers all over the world. That way, efforts like TEFL WU could be extended internationally wherever TEFL workers want to take up the collective struggle.
Well there are lots of social media groups for TEFL folks/online teachers to ask for advice. Idk about rules on union organizing, but could be a good way to find people.
I love this! My short experience as an online TEFL teacher was that it was a very precarious position. I had to open my schedule in the middle of the night and often had only one or two students for 30 minute slots each night. The pay per hour wasn't bad, but they put all the responsibility on the teacher to compete with all the other teachers on the platform for students, and often meant prep time outside of paid teaching time. The closest comparison I can think of is Uber - including the fact that you're responsible for your laptop, internet, home office, supplies, etc. Gig workers of all types need unions!
And that solidarity can bring big benefits. I just read about unionized Uber drivers in Kenya who have their own price sheet in their Ubers because of rising gas prices and the large cut that Uber takes - https://restofworld.org/2024/kenya-uber-rate-cards-fuel-prices/?ref=disconnect.blog
There's an effort in the IWW to formally charter an Industrial Union (IU) administration for education workers (IU 620 in our industrial taxonomy), which unsurprisingly I'm a part of. We want to set up Industrial Union Branches (IUBs) for education workers all over the world. That way, efforts like TEFL WU could be extended internationally wherever TEFL workers want to take up the collective struggle.
Thanks for sharing!
Well there are lots of social media groups for TEFL folks/online teachers to ask for advice. Idk about rules on union organizing, but could be a good way to find people.