1. DEFINITION
Teachers’ Rights Association (TRA) is an organization of all the teaching workers of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, which supports and encourages the collective struggle to obtain the rights and demands of the teaching workers, and to defend their interests, to combat all forms of subservience, exploitation and oppression, and to bring about a healthy work environment, and which develops and coordinates cooperation and solidarity amongst all teaching workers.
Teachers’ Rights Association (TRA) makes constant use of efforts and endeavors aimed at unity and cooperation with all faculties and campuses, similar organizations, in members and non-members, in the struggle for common objectives and solidarity amongst teaching workers. The association functions democratically, openly, and collectively. Respects the opinions, and the proposals of its whole membership. The association develops positively both criticism and the self-criticism.
Teachers’ Rights Association (TRA) maintains its independence from governments, political parties and employer.
2. OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of the association is collective bargaining. The association negotiates with the employer on behalf of its members for collective benefits like pay increments, workload, contract regularization, easy access to healthcare and medical benefits, more temporary and permanent housing, on-campus dining, decent workspace and workstations for all, free education for the faculty members and their families, working arrangements, and redundancies. The association has its prime objective the emancipation of all the teaching workers in the university by means of struggle:
- against all forms of exploitation of teaching workers and to obtain and guarantee living and working conditions for all teaching workers which would allow them the widest possible benefits from the fruits of their labor, in order to obtain for them and their families the time and the means to live in conditions appropriate to our epoch, which is one marked by the headlong progress of science and technology;
- against subservience and for the establishment of a new and just working environment;
- for the elimination of racism, sexism and any other forms of discrimination;
- for the right to regular employment of the contractual teaching workers;
- for the abolition of forced and unpaid labor;
- for full and public organized social security coverage and any other assistance needed, adequately responsive to the needs of workers and their families in the event of unemployment, sickness and old age;
- for free and public organized vocational training and education for all the teaching workers, throughout their working lives;
- for the providence of means securing access to cultural and recreational activities to all teaching workers and their families;
- for the protection of working environment, and for effective measures to maintain and promote ecological standards and sustainable development;
- for the promotion of health and safety at workplace;
- for free and public organized health care for all the teaching workers and for improving the ease of access to it;
- for the achievement of social and economic workplace democracy, the defense and further development of teaching workers’ rights and freedoms, respect for human rights, and the implementation of the Article 23(4) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- for the protection of the rights brought up by the annual Congress of the Teachers’ Rights Association.
3. MEANS
In order to encourage and promote these objectives, the TRA takes initiatives to contribute to the mobilization of all the forces. All means converge to the three universal principles: organize, educate and agitate. To this end, the association, its lower and higher bodies, and all of its structure:
- use every available means to publicize and explain these objectives to the teaching workers of all the faculties and campuses, together with the programs and decisions adopted by its leading bodies, and the actions for unity which it adopts;
- utilize the rich experience of the similar struggles at public sector universities;
- organize action days, demonstrations, mobilizations, marches, strikes and any other form of action;
- make every effort to organize, inspire and coordinate solidarity;
- promote and encourage all democratic debates and exchanges of opinion and experience on problems of common interest to all teaching workers;
- work for action organized and carried out at faculty and campus level to stimulate and develop consultation, cooperation and solidarity, so as to respond best to their specific concerns and interests;
- TRA establishes relations with regional and national level organizations based on fraternal and voluntary cooperation in the constant search for common objectives and the planning of joint activities. In this spirit, the TRA shall seek contact and establish cooperation with other organizations, like Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association;
- advocate and act in favor of the achievement of unity amongst teaching workers;
- work closely with internal and external members of the university Syndicate and Senate and lobbying for the delegated legislation in the favor of community;
- organize schools or orientation sessions for the members’ training;
- develop, study and circulate the literature and essays for political education of the members at all levels.