The Ireland Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, we send our solidarity and support. Though we are not a recognized trade union in your jurisdiction, we are in the UK where the Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW, represent English Language Teachers in London and elsewhere.
We send our respect for your solidarity, your active community spirit and cooperation, your patience and your persistent action to organise, fight and win fair treatment and fair pay and recognition for each other, your co-workers and friends. Well done. Don’t think about stopping! Keep organizing!
The IWW have a special understanding of the precarious nature of English language teaching, like you do in Unite in Ireland. We have a strong respect for the action you are taking.
· Our members in the UK formed the action group known as the Angry Language Brigade in 2014. Through this group’s direct action and solidarity we won against wage theft and abusive work practices in London ELT schools on multiple occasions. ‘Direct action gets the goods’
· More recently and locally IWW Ireland supported Grafton College teachers in their closure sending support during their occupation. We supported Grafton teachers and We Support Delfin Teachers
· In Dublin this January we ran an organizing educational in Dublin, hosted by ELT Advocacy Ireland. Some of your fellow Unite ELT members attended. You believe we need to EDUCATE, AGITATE and ORGANISE when we need real change in our workplaces, communities, and society.
· In London, this year we started a new group to organise against low pay and precarious ELT employment practices in the UK: TEFL Workers’ Union.
· Most significantly, as you know, TEFL Workers’ Union has organised Delfin in London. We can only assume you are in contact and know they send their full solidarity with you. We underline that here today. We offer any local support we can, at your picket, after work and throughout and after your campaign in any way we can. Just contact us. Solidarity.
TEFL Workers’ Union, strongly influenced by the successful organization work in ELT happening here in Ireland, is holding a rally today in support of your historic action coinciding with - and supporting - your work stoppage.
Thank you for standing up for your fellow workers here in Dublin. When you do, you are -in a very real way- standing up for ELT workers everywhere in Ireland. Our fellow members in your London school stand in London in Southampton Place at the London’s Delfin Language School today in solidarity with you.
Stay united! Keep organizing! Keep fighting! Keep winning! Support Delfin Teachers! Up the Teachers! Up the workers!