Monday, October 5th – Today the Agriculture Union is celebrating World Teachers Day. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of World Teachers Day by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization. The theme of the day this year is “Standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our futures”. Today is a great day to celebrate hard-working teachers around the world, and for us, it is an opportunity to give special recognition to the many educators who are members of our union.
While many members of the Agriculture Union work in farm research and food safety, a significant part of our membership work as teachers and educators in several federal departments and ministries. Our 327 members at the Canada School of Public Service deliver training and courses to workers across the public service, ensuring that the people who deliver public services are confident, well-prepared and knowledgeable. Our 180 members at the Department of National Defense work as second-language educators at military colleges and bases to ensure that members of the Canadian Armed Forces can offer services in both official languages. And our 230 members at the Public Service Commission provide second-language testing and maintain the highest standards in hiring for the Canadian government.
Our educator members who work for the federal government deserve to be celebrated, today and every day. They do their work with pride and integrity. Yet they continue to face challenges from the employer, such as job cuts, workforce adjustments, and the rollback of French language rights in the workplace.
In 2026, teachers around the world are facing mounting challenges, from AI to climate change to conflict and displacement. Here in Canada, while we have some of the best education systems in the world, public education has been chronically underfunded in recent years. This has led to large-scale labour conflicts in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. Teachers are fighting not only for their own well-being, but for that of their students. It is for these reasons, among many, that we not only celebrate World Teachers Day this year, but that we fight for better working conditions for our teacher members, and for teachers everywhere.