Ele Ludemann: Partisan problem

There’s a partisan problem with some unions.

In an interview with PPTA president Chris Abercrombie on Wednesday morning Ryan Bridge asked if the union was political from 32:40.

Abercrombie admitted it was and said, it was like Federated Farmers.

Federated Farmers is sometimes political but Feds isn’t partisan and the teacher union is which is a very important difference between them.

That was clearly shown when the government was trying to negotiate with the PPTA in early October, the number one item on their agenda for a meeting with Education Minister Erica Stanford was Palestine.

We learned of another example in an interview with Mike Hosking yesterday, Public Services Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said (at 02:48) one problem in negotiations with education unions was: . ..

….extraneous other information coming to the party such as our approach to the Treaty o Waitangi that is not critical to terms and conditions….

The Commissioner didn’t say which union it was but Matua Kahurangi illustrates what he calls the PPTA’s political circus.

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) used to represent educators. Today, it’s a political pressure group masquerading as a union, and its latest stunt confirms just how far it’s drifted from neutrality.

The PPTA is now selling Toitū Te Tiriti merchandise through its website – complete with slogans, banners, and talking points straight from political activism. This isn’t about education. It’s about ideology. When a union openly campaigns against government policy and pushes one side of a divisive constitutional debate, it abandons its duty to represent all teachers, regardless of their political beliefs. . .

These aren’t just examples of the union politics, they’re examples of partisan politics and show that the union is letting members down by wasting time on extraneous partisan issues when they should be negotiating for better pay and conditions for the members.

When I was a first at university and student union membership was compulsory there was a big debate on whether or not the university union should be sending money to help striking miners.

Those against the move won by pointing out that students would have a wide range of political views and we weren’t paying fees to support those of the union.

Members of the education unions will have a similarly wide range of political views and the union is not representing all of them when it is being partisan.

They’re letting down their members and the pupils who have been missing school because of strikes.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.