This text is part of the special Syndicalism booklet
More flexibility thanks to telecommuting, better work-family balance and greater recognition of the teaching profession, these are some of the reasons why the Alliance of Teachers of Montreal (APPM) intends to march on 1er next May. The organization plans to join its voice with those of other unions in a demonstration on International Workers’ Day.
“We are going to go alongside thousands of workers to demand better conditions for work-family balance and personal life”, sums up the president of the APPM, Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre about the event which will begin in Cabot Square in Montreal.
If, unlike other jobs, teachers’ schedules leave less room for flexibility, Mme Beauvais-St-Pierre believes that telework still allows flexibility.
“Everywhere else we see more and more openness on the part of employers to telework. And we know that it has become an element to attract people, ”she observes. A measure “which costs nothing” for establishments and which makes it possible to make the working environment of teachers “more human”, pleads the president of the APPM. The union represents approximately 9,500 members of the institutions of the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), Peter Hall School and the Fournier Academic Center.
“Obviously, when you teach, it’s in the classroom,” she says. But the union wants to switch certain tasks, such as planning, correction and pedagogical days, to teleworking.
“It is particularly true in Montreal, we have teachers who do not live on the island”, because of the price of rents and properties, illustrates the president of the APPM. “It may be more interesting for them to stay at home, rather than driving for an hour in the morning to go to school and another to come back, just to go and do a task that could be done elsewhere than at school,” she says.
Greater trust in teachers
The pandemic has also caused teleworking to be introduced in establishments. “We saw that it was possible, since, for the past two years, teachers have been able to do the majority of their pedagogical days and their corrections at home. And the fact is that they do the work, they respect their commitments, ”argues the one who wants the practice to be sustainable after the health crisis.
Mme Beauvais-St-Pierre also believes that there is “still a long way to go” on the part of the government to improve the working conditions of teachers. “Education has lost its feathers over the years. The profession needs to be more valued, the people who practice it too, ”she pleads. She cites as an example the character of Émilie Bordeleau in Caleb’s Daughterssometimes jokingly mentioned among the teaching staff to talk about the difficult working conditions.
If she concedes that it is “sometimes difficult” for parents to make sense of things when the education sector already has several needs, she nevertheless believes that the ball is in the government’s court.
“Everything is not linked to the individual who is in front of the class, but to what the government decides to give to education and to give as tools in human resources”, she specifies.
“For parents, but also for school administrators, it is sometimes very difficult to respect the right to disconnect and to encourage it,” she notes. However, clarifying such a measure would take the pressure off the shoulders of teachers, says the president of the APPM.
Perpetuating certain teleworking tasks would, according to her, show a mark of trust and respect on the part of employers. “Teachers don’t need to be supervised to do what they have to do, because we are professionals”.
“You can do a profession with passion, by getting involved, while having acceptable working conditions,” adds Ms.me Beauvais-St-Pierre. She cites weekends off and resting in the evenings without having to answer emails as examples.
“It’s essential for us to have happy teachers. And having happy teachers also means people who do their job well. And that obviously affects the students. »