A bold women trade union activist challenges the power of private schools

L’Orient le Jour published an interview yesterday with Noha Osseiran, the independent candidate to the elections of Teachers Trade Union (Beirut Branch).  Osseiran noted that it is her democratic right to be a candidate for elections and this has been denied to many for 20 years.  She added that private educational institutions choose their own candidate without consulting with the teachers.  As a result, these candidates normally follow the diktat of their institutions and not the interests of the trade union.  Osseiran affirms that she realized this situation during the latest mobilization of the Union Coordination Committee particularly since the discourse of the president of the Trade Union of Private Schools Teachers, Nehmeh Mahfuz, was in contradiction with that of the representatives of private schools.  Osseiran further added that she resigned from the school where she used to teach because of difference of opinion between her and the trade union representative on this particular subject.  Osseiran considers that there is no real “trade union culture” in Lebanon and hoped that the upcoming elections will contribute to raising the awareness of teachers especially in relation to their rights.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour 14 May 2014