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Monday
March 4 2002 10:00 AM ET BANGKOK, THAILAND (RLUO) - I come from “The Land of Smiles” – Thailand. I grew up in the States but I’ve been living here for so long that it feels like home. I love the gentleness of the people and their relaxed attitude toward so many things. They call it “mai pen rai” which is loosely translated as “never mind” or “no big deal”. You accidentally bump into someone and knock the drink out of their hand: “Mai pen rai,” they’ll say to you, smiling. You forget your wedding anniversary: “Mai pen rai,” your Thai wife says. Your boss shorts your end-of-month salary by a couple of hundred bucks…for the third month in a row: “Mai pen rai,” he’ll utter with a wide smile. No big deal.(?) International Teachers Have No Power I teach at an international school in Bangkok. This is my third school in six years. The good news is that I love teaching. The bad news is that the vast majority of managers, directors, and/or Board members I’ve worked for need nothing less than a good thrashing. They run their schools like their personal fiefdoms and treat their expatriate teaching staff like so much office furniture – cheap and easily replaced. We, as International School Teachers have one, big problem: no power, no clout. We have no power to negotiate, no power to bargain, no power for redress of grievances. Our employers are keenly aware of this fact. I once worked for a school that told us we were covered by health insurance. Not only could they never produce a booklet giving anyone details of the plan, but also those who submitted doctor’s bills or hospital bills were never reimbursed for anything. The official B.S. from the Board was “Oh, we’re putting a booklet together. It takes a while, you know? Mai pen rai.” They’d been working on a booklet for 4 years. Teachers' Employment Contracts: “Mai pen rai.” At all the schools I’ve worked, there have been employment contracts. These contracts mean little to the bosses. Most contracts have a clause clearly stipulating a date when teachers should let the Board know if they want to leave at the end of the school year. On that same date, the Board should let teachers know if their contracts will or will not be renewed for the next year. At another school I was at, we all did our duty by the appointed date. The Board, however, was silent as to whether we’d be asked back or not. Some of us had families. We needed to know so we could make plans. Still, nothing but silence. We asked and asked, and the weeks slipped into months. Finally, with only a month or so of school left, the Board made its pronouncements. A few of the teachers who would not be asked back paid dearly for the contract violation of the Board – by that time it was simply too late to get another job. All the other schools had already met their staffing needs months before. The worst part was that, to the Board, it was all just one big “mai pen rai.” Contract date, no contract date, who cares? An International Union for International Teachers It’s time to organize. It’s time for a teachers’ union for International Teachers. It’s time to put something together that will send a clear message to these people – it won’t be business as usual anymore. I’m in the very germinal stages of trying to put something together now. This is going to be an extremely long and circuitous path through the labyrinth of Thai law and, possibly, international law, but I’m trying to make progress of any kind every day. I already have a name for the union: “The Federation of International School Teachers.” The acronym has a real tasty ring to it!
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