(Originally Published in Barcelona Metropolitan, October 2007)

In sociological terms, Teaching provides a popular example for Status Inconsistency, in which a person may have a positive societal image while at the same time occupying a low position in the economic pecking order. However, in Barcelona, there is no inconsistency for private language instructors. They have very little status, period. Most of them are underpaid, work under substandard conditions with reduced benefits, and they have almost no job security. In short, they are disempowered –or so it seems. And power, be it financial or otherwise, is a vital factor in the status equation.

This perception of disempowerment, however, is only that. A perception. The fact is that language instructors do have a lot of power. The problem is that most of them don’t know about it. The place where they can find it is the Federació de Ensenyament de Commissiones Obreros (CCOO). It exists to provide support –even in English, if necessary. They offer advice, inform teachers of their rights, make negotiations between workers and employers, help organize union elections for individual schools, and provide skilled negotiators for legally binding Convenio agreements between workers and industry associations.

“We’ve also got a full legal service, the gabinete, which will support you and represent you through the courts, give you legal advice, etc.,” said Steve Rumbol, the Coordinator of the Private Language Teaching Sector at CCOO. “Also we support teachers in organizing elections and getting union reps in their companies, which is the basic foundation of what we need to do to improve the situation.” A recent victory for Ensenyament was realized in February when they managed to win 2.7 million € for 400 former employees of Opening School of English. The case took nearly five years to settle.

From this point on, all teachers’ names will be aliases. As one native Spanish teacher, José, said, “There are many schools where to declare, I’m unionized, is synonymous with saying, I’m fired.”

Linda has lived and taught in Barcelona for 23 years. Even though she feels fortunate to be in a good situation, she still feels passionately that it’s her duty to participate in the union. She sees a global effect when uninformed teachers accept substandard conditions. “It has ramifications beyond just one person’s individual situation.”

Deepak has worked for an in-company language school for the past year and is now being obliged to become an autonomo. “The union has been a real source of useful advice in my situation. Right now I’m weighing my options. Through Ensenyament, you know where you stand and what kind of bargaining position you’re in.”

When Convenio negotiations begin this Winter, one of the Federació’s prime objectives will be to reduce the number of contact hours for language teachers. “It’s such a broad convenio,” said Linda. “It was not written with language teachers in mind. Thirty contact hours are what it indicates, which –if you’re teaching something like driver’s education– makes sense, because you’re spending very little time planning. But for something like teaching English it would be exhausting. If you have stamina, you can do it for a long time. But if you keep it up, eventually you’ll sacrifice your marriage or your family.”

Further Information:
Federació d’Ensenyament, CCOO
Via Laietana 16, 4ª Planta
93 481 28 42
E-mail: [email protected]

Union membership is 10€ a month, with discounts for part-time and temporary work.

Information Sessions about your Rights, given in English at CCOO.
1 workshop repeated on these dates:
Oct 17th (7.30pm) & 19th (10.30am) and Nov 21st (7.30pm) & 23rd (10.30am).
Book your place in advance. [email protected]