Militant, progressive, nationalist: Unionism in academia in the Philippines
Event details
What is the role of unions in academic institutions? How does the union challenge oppressive and undemocratic policies in universities?
In this talk, the principles of the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) as a militant, progressive, and nationalist union will be discussed. The AUPAEU is the sole and exclusive negotiating representative of all academic rank and file employees of the University of the Philippines. Through negotiations, launching protest actions, and serving as a campaign centre, the union fights for the implementation and promotion of democratic governance, economic benefits, welfare and privileges of employees in the university.
Aside from this, the talk will dwell on the importance of conducting educational discussions and basic mass integrations regarding social and labour-related issues in the country to raise the political awareness among the members of the union. Forming alliances with other sectors, the union is leading the fight for reasonable wages and regularisation of contractual employees in the university. The talk will also share how the union is actively participating in the nationwide call of militant and progressive teachers' movements for a nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented education system in the Philippines.
About the speaker
Rommel Rodriguez is a professor of Philippine Literature and Creative Writing in Filipino at the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP). He is also the incumbent Vice President for Faculty of the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU), the sole and exclusive negotiating representative of all academic rank-and-file employees of the University. Rommel is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.