A work program for the SMPV and the SGB
At the delegates' meeting on November 8, the SMPV delegates were persuaded by the outcome of the negotiations between their central board and the SGB and decided that the SMPV would remain a member of the SGB after all - albeit as an associate member.
On March 29, the delegates decided to withdraw the SMPV from the trade union federation because the SGB contributions were simply too much of a burden on the budget. Some delegates complained that they saw no concrete benefit in membership. However, the delegates also gave the Central Board a mandate to negotiate better conditions with the SGB.
The result of these negotiations was presented at the DM on November 8:
The SMPV can switch to associate status. In concrete terms, this means that membership fees will be reduced by around 50%, but the association representative will lose her voting rights at SGB Board meetings.
During the negotiations, however, the Central Committee focused not only on the price but also on the question of what concrete benefits the SMPV would derive from continued membership of the SGB. Together with the SGB, he drew up a work program for the coming years: "Of course, the union's work must primarily be carried out by the SMPV and especially by the Central Board itself. It must identify and analyze the most pressing problems and gather the necessary material. However, the SGB must support it with advice on which approach is most promising in which case. It must inform them when the time is ideal for an initiative on this or that issue and which are the best contact points for this. And they must provide them with direct contacts to politicians who make decisions on this issue.
What points does the work program contain?
The main aim is to enhance the status of the profession of music teacher. The Central Committee therefore believes it is very important that title protection is achieved for this profession. Particularly because a large number of music school teachers will be retiring in the next few years, it is essential that the profession is regulated and that poorly trained teachers or teachers with only artistic but no pedagogical training do not take over these positions. This should prevent the quality of teaching at music schools from declining. However, it is also a measure against lower wages. Poorly trained teachers earn less and the cantons, municipalities and sponsoring associations could get used to this.
In this sense, it is also important that there are more Master of Arts training places in music education for those instruments in which there is an impending or already existing shortage of specialists. At the same time, there must be new, meaningful training courses for musicians with purely artistic training, enabling them to obtain a comprehensive post-qualification for music education work without having to study their main instrument again in a normal Master's degree course in pedagogy, in which they have long been qualified. The KMHS and the VMS are already looking for concrete solutions here, but the support of the SMPV and the political support of the SGB certainly can't hurt either.
For the SMPV and all other associations representing cultural professionals who teach music, dance, drama or visual arts, it is important for two reasons that they are recognized throughout Switzerland as "organizations of professional cultural professionals". Firstly, this would allow them to have a say in the future, for example when a new cultural message is negotiated, and secondly, they should be taken into account when awarding KUOR funding. The second point in particular is the reason why we are always told "You are education, not culture". This is where we need the SGB to establish contacts in politics.
These are the three major tasks that are difficult to solve and take time.
The program also includes smaller but equally important tasks such as guaranteeing that private music schools of all kinds also pay social security contributions and that there is no bogus self-employment. The problem of chain employment contracts must be tackled, i.e. universities should not permanently employ lecturers who have been teaching the same courses for years with a workload of less than 10%. Furthermore, the entry threshold for self-employed people to join the Music and Education Pension Fund is to be lowered. And music teaching is to become a focus sector in order to be able to take action against wage dumping in peripheral regions with many cross-border commuters.
We have not forgotten the important problem of the creeping reduction in staffing levels at music schools, which we will only be able to tackle in a meaningful way when the next revision of the Unemployment Insurance Act is due.
"That would be a paradise for music teachers in Switzerland!" said Wolfgang Pailer, who campaigned against the SMPV remaining part of the SGB because he doubts that the SMPV really receives this support from the SGB.
The Board of Directors undertakes to tackle the aforementioned tasks vigorously and to hold the SGB accountable for providing it with the negotiated support.
And he calls on you, dear qualified music teachers in Switzerland, who unfortunately do not yet belong to the association, to join the SMPV, because every time you join, the weight of the SMPV's initiatives on behalf of employed and self-employed music teachers in Switzerland increases, so that one day "paradisiacal conditions" really will prevail.
