This year, the Education and Training Employees’ Association is proud to announce that the Charles Boylan Memorial Human Rights and International Solidarity Fund in the amount of $1,300 will be awarded to the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation. Our ETEA members are passionate teachers who believe in the importance of language education for career opportunities, academic advancement, immigration, and personal growth. However, we are also aware that the lands on which we teach, work and live are the unceded and traditional territories of numerous First Nations, with ancient, uninterrupted connections to the land and water. We recognize that one of the worst injustices perpetrated by colonialism in what is now called British Columbia has been the degradation of local indigenous languages. Language has always played a central role in culture and identity, and a link to those who have come before us. Fortunately, there is now an effort underway to reduce this trend and revitalize indigenous languages in this province. Leading the way for the past several years has been the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation, an indigenous organization dedicated to “inspir[ing] and empower[ing] British Columbia First Nations to revitalize and enhance their languages, arts and cultures… as we race against time to avoid the extinction of precious Indigenous knowledge, cultures and languages.

Charles Boylan was a long-time activist and educator in BC. A union organizer, passionate human rights defender, candidate for political office, and a force for organized labour in BC, he spent his last years as part of ETEA. He spearheaded our participation in the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators’ Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee, and for a long time he served as ETEA’s committee virtually by himself. He was a mentor to many of us in the union, and often led by example. When he passed in 2017 his legacy was honoured by establishing a memorial fund in his name, to be distributed annually in areas of education, human rights, and social justice. He supported indigenous people and causes, and helped organize speakers’ tours around indigenous issues. We strongly believe that he would agree with the decision to award these funds in his name for 2019-2020. As teachers ourselves, we believe this is a highly appropriate cause, and we hope our modest contribution will help the FPCF’s important and continuing efforts.

The ETEA

ETEA would like to congratulate our president, Kevin Drager, on being elected to the FPSE executive council as Member-at-large at the recent Federation of Post-Secondary Educators’ Annual General Meeting. While, as union president, Kevin has served on the FPSE Presidents Council for several years, this marks the first time anyone from our union, representing private sector teachers, has been elected to the FPSE Executive, which is overwhelmingly made up of instructors at public sector institutes. On the anniversary of FPSE’s 50th year and ETEA’s 25th year, this appointment validates the support, recognition, and acceptance that FPSE has for our union and for our president. Well done, Kevin!

The Education and Training Employees’ Association (ETEA), a union of private sector ESL teachers and career college instructors, first organized on June 20th, 1995. After originally joining Local 500 and then Local 517 of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU), a union with a long and proud labour history in North America, teachers at ILSC Vancouver formed ETEA and joined the CIEA (College Institute Educators’ Association, now the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC, FPSE), the umbrella federation of post-secondary teacher unions in the province (our friends at the Vancouver and District Labour Council send us a letter of congratulations which you can read here!).

For the next dozen years, the union was composed of teachers at just that one school, ILSC (now ETEA Bargaining Unit #1), but since then ETEA has seen significant growth in membership and diversity. We identified a glaring need for improved working conditions in the private post-secondary sector, and our organizers began reaching out to teachers at other schools in Vancouver, Surrey, and Victoria, beginning in 2007. Over the following decade or so teachers at 13 other schools voted in favour of certifying with us.

In the past few years, industry changes have hit our sector hard. Consolidation, aggressive management practices, and an ever-more competitive business environment have taken their toll. In response, the union underwent a comprehensive restructuring process in 2019 to better deal with some of these new challenges. Recently however, COVID-19 has caused a dramatic drop in student enrollments, putting extreme financial pressure on our five existing bargaining units and leading to layoffs and closures. The final outcome of this current situation remains to be determined.

Nonetheless, we are proud of our record and remain committed to representing the rights of teachers, improving working conditions, standing up for students, and professionalizing our industry. Our aim as an association has always been to maintain a progressive environment of open negotiation between teachers and employers, and this will not change.

We would like to take the time today to celebrate our 25 years as a union and recognize the achievements of our organization. In these difficult times, there is a greater need than ever to grow, revive and stabilize our industry and to continue to uphold and improve the professional standards within private post-secondary education in British Columbia. We remain the only union of our kind in North America, and as FPSE celebrates its 50th anniversary representing college instructors in BC this year, we are proud to have been doing our part for the past 25, tenaciously holding on like an arbutus tree in a storm, facing whatever challenges may come our way. We intend to continue for many more years to come. 

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To the members of ETEA – 7:

It is with a heavy heart that we see the closing of Inlingua today and the loss of work for all of you. These are sad times that we are all facing and it is a shame to see such a wonderful group of teachers lose their jobs. I recall eight years ago being asked to attend a “birthday party” to speak about my own experiences in joining the ETEA and an organizing drive. Not many union members actually have the experience of organizing a union into their workplace, and you were an inspirational group.

As president of the ETEA I have had the good fortune to attend a few of your bargaining unit meetings. I was immediately struck by what a close cohesive group of dedicated professionals you were. Since joining the ETEA many of you took on roles within the ETEA to help us grow and further our interests. Some shoes will be difficult if not impossible to fill. Of course, unions are about all of us – I feel so fortunate to have met and worked with each and every one of you. As a group you stepped up and showed solidarity for other ETEA bargaining units. You were a great and important part of the ETEA and it is sad to see this day come.

As you move forward I wish you all the best. I hope many of you will find work at other ETEA unionized schools in the future. Many of you may choose to take this moment to move into other areas of work, and as you do I hope you take your union experience with you. While we are losing you as members, your contributions have made our organization stronger and you will always have a place within the ETEA. To help with this transition and any issues that may arise as part of your employment after the school closes, both Graeme and John will still be available to offer support in the coming months. We would all like to be here to support you as best we can.

The ETEA is local 21 of the Federation of Post- Secondary Educators. Several of you have taken on roles within some of the FPSE committees and have not only supported the work of our union, but post-secondary unions across the province. I’d also like to share with you the following statement from FPSE as well as direct you to a media release from FPSE on the closing of inlingua.

FPSE President, Terri Van Steinburg’s statement – https://www.fpse.ca/news/presidents-comment/last-day-work-inlingua-workers-respect-and-appreciation-their-contributions

Media release – https://www.fpse.ca/news/fpse-news/media-release-private-post-secondary-layoffs-continue-union-concerned-about-what

This year is the 25^th anniversary for the ETEA. We had planned a barbeque this June to celebrate, but of course have had to postpone those plans. Once we can reschedule, know that you are still welcome to attend. In fact I hope you do and we and we can all share a moment of camaraderie. Feel free to reach out to me any time.

In Solidarity,

Kevin Drager

ETEA President

Please leave a solidarity message for the workers from Inlingua:

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fpsebc/photos/a.1483797841915909/2286842624944756/?type=3&theater

On Twitter https://twitter.com/FPSE/status/1266379939902701568

This COVID-19 pandemic has hit our economy and economies around the world hard. It has had an unprecedented effect on our members ability to work and provide services to students. It has meant that students cannot meet face to face with their teachers and other students. This is normally a time of year when we see members recalled to work for the busy summer season and schools making new hires. The reality is that teachers are not being recalled to work and some of our most senior members have been laid-off. We predict that this pandemic will affect around 75% of our membership, if not more over the coming months. We have already seen the unfortunate closure of Inlingua, ETEA – 7, and are concerned more schools may follow. The ETEA has been working with the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators to message government about the importance of supporting our industry as part of a road map to economic recovery. Please follow the link for a statement from FPSE on the deep layoffs that have been experienced in private-post secondary, especially in language schools.

FPSE statement on private post-secondary institution layoffs

For members who have been laid off and need to access some of the benefits provided please see the FPSE information on Financial Benefits and Assistance Available During the COVID-19 Emergency.

We wish everyone the best through these difficult times. We will continue to work with our members and employers as we move through this. Contact your union representative if you have any questions.