DRL July 2006

The TCOP will hold sixteen one-day provincial consultations on freedom of association (FOA) in Punjab, Balochistan, NWFP, and Sindh provinces. Each consultation will involve fifteen participants from the different teachers association. Participants will design strategy for running a national campaign to raise the issue of freedom of association among teachers. For this purpose, fifty thousand (100,000) information pamphlets on FOA in Urdu and ten thousand (10,000) letters regarding violations of such rights will be printed in Urdu. The pamphlets will include background on the importance of FOA and the need to be in compliance with ILO convention, along with invitation to teachers association to unite under one umbrella to address the issue of FOA. The letters will be signed by teachers from all over Pakistan and will be sent to the ministry of laboour, the ministry of education , international donors, and the ILO. The combined activities will target more than 100,000 teachers. As part of the technical assistance provided to the TCOP this program, a consultant from the American  Federation of Teachers (AFT) will travel to Pakistan to participate in at least 10 of the consultations. The AFT consultant will provide information and materials on similar efforts undertaken in the United States, and establish a communications channel between teachers associations in Pakistan, and the AFT in the United States.

Program Description

The solidarity center will work with the Teachers Consortium of Pakistan (TCOP) in 2006 to strengthen their organizational ability to promote the professional freedoms of teachers and education employees, and their right to organize and participate in the formulation and implementation of educational policies. The solidarity center, in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), will support TCOP to convene a national meeting for national and provincial organizers of TCOP. The objective of this meeting is to help improve TCOP organizational structure, develop a system to collect membership dues, identify thematic areas and foster future programs to service its members. The overall goal of the program is the strengthening of the organizational responses of teachers to address the prevailing problems through more effective union strategic approaches and programs. Ten people will participate in a two-day meeting to accomplish this.

The Solidarity Center will help build the capacity of TCOP by providing support for a program consultant who will provide administrative support to TCOP and will network with its affiliates. The program consultant will also monitor four national dailies and compile reports on the state of teachers in Pakistan. The program consultant will prioritize issues for reporting and releases to the press in cooperation with TCOP on a quarterly basis. The solidarity center will also support TCOP to develop their own website to build a knowledge base to outreach to larger number of teachers through informative materials available on their website.

Institutional support of teachers consortium of Pakistan (TCOP)

The total number of teachers in both public and private schools is 334,000, 35% of whom are women (1998 census). Teachers in Pakistan organize themselves informally into associations. They do not have collective bargaining rights, which is a major worker rights violation in the country. A few teacher associations have joined national trade union federations but are non-paying affiliates because teachers associations generally do not have any institutionalized structure of dues collection. In 2004, the solidarity center began work with the Pakistan national federation of trade unions (PNFTU) to organize teachers and bring these association together under one umbrella of cooperation on common issues. The concept of establishing a teachers associations from all over Pakistan showed a willingness to join the umbrella group. Through a separate program, the solidarity center is currently working with TCOP/PWF to organize teacher associations all over Pakistan.

The solidarity center will work with the teacher consortium of Pakistan (TCOP) in 2006 to strengthen their organizational ability to promote the professional freedom of teachers and education employees, and their right to organize and participate in formulation and implementation of education policies. The solidarity center, in collaboration with the American federation of teachers (AFT), will support TCOP to convene a national meeting for national and provincial organization of TCOP. The objective of this meeting is to help improve TCOP organization structure, develop a system to collect membership dues, identify thematic areas and foster future programs to service its members. The overall goal of the program is the strengthening of the organization responses of teachers to address the prevailing problems through more effective union strategic approaches and programs. Ten people will participate in a two-day meeting to accomplish this.

The solidarity center will help build capacity of TCOP by providing support for a program consultant who will provide administrative support to TCOP and will network with its affinities. The program consultant will also monitor four national dailies and compile reports on the state of teachers in Pakistan. The program consultant will prioritize issues for reporting and release to the press in cooperation with TCOP on a quarterly basis. The solidarity center will also support TCOP to develop their own website to build knowledge base to outreach to larger number of teachers through informative materials available on their website.

Program Description

Strengthening the role of women in public and political life is an essential ingredient to vibrant and inclusive civil societies and sustainable democracies that serve the interest of all citizens. In many countries. Trade unions have served as such a vehicle in promoting women’s participation. However in Pakistan, the union movement has yet to fulfill its potential in such a role. While there may be many reasons for this, the most obvious is that the overall membership of women in the union movement is quite low as many sectors where women work are unorganized or trade unions are prohibited (e.g. nurses and teachers). The low membership contributes to the lack of women leaders and the lack of attention to organizing women workers.

The solidarity center will work with the teacher’s consortium of Pakistan (TCOP) to organize women workers and to strengthen the TCOP women’s wing, the TCOP will organize three two-day workshops, with 15 women participating in each workshop. The workshops will aim to build leadership skills among women members and design strategies with each of the provincial chapters to foster greater participation of women unionists, and develop their skills to be candidates for union positions. These trainings will encourage women to participate in campaign strategies, especially to promote a positive image of women workers among communities. The TCOP will also encourage these women workers to run for positions in future local government elections.

TCOP Provincial Heads