Teachers’ unions - Public will not support strife

Unsurprisingly, vexed questions about pay and pensions loom large on the agendas of three teacher unions as annual meetings take place this week in an atmosphere of simmering militancy.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn will hear demands from vocational teachers to protect pay allowances, while primary teachers want to ballot for industrial action if certain agreements and guarantees are breached, and at secondary level a legal challenge is threatened on equality grounds against reduced entitlements for new teachers.

When it comes to tactics, however, the unions have limited scope, because when pay and pension changes were going through the Oireachtas, they were relatively quiet.

In any event, the Croke Park Agreement, such as it is, restricts them from taking to the barricades.

When thousands of people are struggling to survive, unions representing relatively well-off teachers should be willing to compromise and adopt a more realistic approach to pay and pensions.

With the public coffers empty, there will be little sympathy for industrial strife.