I have always been in a union. Back in the UK, I was a member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and was the school ATL representative for a while. I am now so old that the ATL no longer exists and has been merged into the muppety National Education Union (NEU). I don’t think I would have remained in the NEU, had I stayed in England.
When I moved to Australia in 2010, I joined the Independent Education Union (IEU). Even though not everyone at my place was in the union, it was always something I believed in. I have been in and out of both the British Labour Party and the Australian Labor party over the years and union membership aligns with my soft left politics — or at least what would have been considered soft left politics until about five minutes ago.
For the record, I left the British Labour Party because of my opposition to university tuition fees and more prosaically, I left the Australian Labor party because membership was surprisingly expensive and I didn’t have time to attend meetings. It started to feel like a waste of money.
So, I am both an enthusiastic joiner and an idiosyncratic leaver of things. And now, I have decided to leave the IEU*.
I am not going into the detail of why I am leaving the IEU. Suffice it to note that for most of my time in Australia, I have had little to do with them and them with me. That’s how I like it. I like to know I have the protections of union membership to fall back on, should I need them. Yet, ideally, I won’t need them. Everyone is happy.
Recently, this has changed and I have been unimpressed with how the IEU have handled themselves. I thought I was faced with no alternative, but then I became aware of the Teachers Professional Association of Victoria (TPAV).
TPAV is part of a broader Australia-wide movement known as the ‘Red Union Support Hub’, set-up to offer a stripped-down, less political and far cheaper option than membership of a traditional union, while providing impressive protections such as professional indemnity insurance. They have a range of membership organisations for teachers, nurses and other professionals across Australia.
The TPAV website claims:
“TPAV is run by teachers, not union officials. Zero party politics means lower fees and complete focus on achieving meaningful outcomes for our members.”
There have been some negative headlines about the Red Union movement, linking it with opposition to vaccine mandates and its founders with figures on the right of politics. However, these claims may be a little overblown and I am not particularly bothered by them. For obvious reasons, the traditional unions will be inclined to take a dim view of a new rival and they still have a lot of power and media influence. Provided TPAV can offer me the service they promise, I will be happy. And if they don’t, I will leave.
When I began investigating TPAV, I had an online chat via their website with one of their staff members, Jenny, to check if as a Deputy Principal in an independent school, I was eligible to join. I also asked about whether TPAV would ever attempt to pressure a school by briefing the media — ‘school shaming’. Jenny replied that, “…we do not single out schools when talking to the media. If raising an issue [our representative has talked] about systemic issues and teacher feed back.”
That’s a big plus for me. Let’s see if they keep their word.
*Leaving the IEU was surprisingly easy. I visited their website and could not find anything on how to leave. I therefore left a message via the website contact form stating that I wanted to leave and didn’t know how to do it. A few days later, I received an email accepting my resignation.