Trade union work in the SMPV

Music teachers are often neither organized in a trade union nor in a professional association, although the sector has many "construction sites" that can only be tackled by trade unions.

"I didn't even know that the SMPV is also an association for salaried music teachers," said the person I spoke to on the phone last week. He had contacted me because he was having problems with chain employment contracts and a lack of pension fund insurance. Two days later, Karen Krüttli, Co-President of the Zurich section, said: "You know, the main problem in the union work for music teachers is that colleagues have become so used to simply making a fist of it and accepting unfavorable working conditions, and that they often don't tell us, or tell us too late, where the shoe pinches. For example, it is difficult to do anything about the non-competition clause in the regulations of a particular music school if we find out about it after a good three quarters of the teachers concerned have already signed the renewed contract because they are afraid of losing their job or simply because they are not aware of the problem."

The SMPV is a professional association and not just a trade union. From its many years as a provider of private professional music education, it has retained valuable services such as the organization of music lessons, level examinations, talent competitions and a wide range of further training courses, and the platforms www.mein-musikunterricht.ch and also to some extent www.rent-a-musician.ch serve self-employed people more than employees, but in its trade union work it is much easier for the SMPV to do something for employed music teachers than for the self-employed. Here are two examples of trade union issues that the SMPV is currently dealing with: The problem of "creeping reductions in workloads at music schools" seems to us to be solvable: Anyone who becomes partially unemployed must have their workload reduced by a full day - i.e. by 20% for a full-time position - in order to be entitled to receive unemployment benefits. If a music teacher loses 2-3 lessons each semester, he or she will not achieve this 20% reduction in one fell swoop, but over a period of perhaps three years. We are currently working on various proposals, e.g. that the average value of the loss of workload over a certain period of time, e.g. three years, would also be decisive for reaching this threshold. On the other hand, we do not see a really good solution to the problem of the lack of unemployment insurance for the self-employed. How can you prove, for example, that you have not received any orders and have not simply turned them all down? Although we are observing Syndicom's efforts regarding the unemployment insurance model, we see even greater difficulties in its implementation for self-employed music teachers.
Trade union work is slow work: you have to analyze a problem, work out one or more proposed solutions that have a chance of being implemented, and then you need partners who will help you to submit the proposals to the right political bodies and ensure that we are heard. For the SMPV, this is first and foremost the SGB and its cantonal associations. Our members also have personal political contacts. The more we get involved, such as the Zurich and East-Southeast Switzerland sections did when drafting the respective cantonal music school laws, the more the SMPV is perceived as representing the interests of music teachers in Switzerland. The latter paid off in the city of Chur, for example, when it came to major uncertainties regarding the continuation of basic music education and the associated performance contracts. The OSO President, Annette Dannecker, was invited to the "round table" on music education.

The cantonal, regional and national networks will continue to help us in our trade union work in the future, when we are looking for solutions to our members' regional labour law problems, when we seriously address the major issue of CLAs, or when we fight to ensure that music education is not sometimes politically labelled "education" and sometimes "culture", depending on which label it costs less, but that music education and art lessons are perceived as the essential link between education and culture and that they are subsidized accordingly.

There are therefore many trade union and political construction sites in our sector. It is therefore incredibly important that more music teachers organize themselves in a trade union or professional association so that the associations that are committed to improving working conditions in the field of music education can also lend more weight to their initiatives. Each music teacher must weigh up for himself or herself which association will bring him or her the most advantages. For example, if someone teaches part-time at a music school and also works at an elementary school, membership of a teachers' association is probably the best option. If, on the other hand, someone works at a music school and also teaches some private pupils, he or she is almost certainly best off joining the SMPV. Musicians who primarily give concerts and also teach music need to check which association best represents their interests and which range of services is most useful to them.

If music teachers have joined an association, they should draw the association's leaders' attention to labor law problems in good time and present them with ideas or partially developed proposals for improving their working conditions.

And then it is essential that the associations concerned regularly exchange information about the status of their work and work together for improvements. The SMPV certainly offers a helping hand!