Orientation - Union Membership, Induction and Training (3)
A guide to starting as a teacher aide in Queensland
Starting a career as a teacher aide can be daunting. To help orient and induct you, this series of blog posts will cover:
Professional Development
Union Membership
In Queensland, the union for teacher aides and cleaners is the United Workers Union with 150,000 members.
Unions collectivise member wants and needs; and regularly engage in enterprise bargaining every few years with the aim to improve conditions for workers.
In Australia, union-bargained conditions, apply to ALL workers.
The more members a union has, the more power it has to leverage government for change.
Is it worth joining the union?
On a recent Facebook discussion post, an Anonymous member wrote:
“I’ll be honest, in my past ES role at another school I went to the union with piles and piles of evidence of being abused by my principal…They gave me absolutely zero support so I have zero faith in them”.
Regrettably, this view is common. However; this, and other myths, need to be addressed:
WE are the union - the union is not a benevolent umpire, called to hold employers to account. We are the union and we fight for each other, both in the workplace, across workplaces, and through the services provided by our fees.
The union is a club, not a service. Your fees go towards supporting the club and members, not paying for individual services.
I can’t afford the fees - for me, the union is like income protection insurance - our wages would be much lower if we didn’t have a union constantly pushing for better conditions.
They didn’t help me - with unions generally, there is an understanding that you will not be helped substantially unless you are a member for at least a year.
Unions have finite resources and prioritise helping long-time members over recent members.
This stops people exploiting union membership by joining, receiving assistance and then leaving.
They don’t do enough - unions can only do so much if membership is low. Unions negotiate with government, but the government doesn’t have to agree if they have no reason to.
Are unions perfect? No, absolutely not. An upcoming blog post will highlight some of my constructive criticism of the union. However; I do believe that we are stronger together. It is the reason I write this blog.
I would strongly encourage you to join the union but ultimately, it is voluntary and the decision is yours.