New ASTI chief may be in place for convention

IT remains unclear if the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) will have a new general secretary ahead of its annual convention at the end of March.

The union has appointed a recruitment firm to shortlist candidates who applied for the post up to the deadline 10 days ago. ASTI president Susie Hall is unaware of how many people have applied but expects a strong field for the interview.

“The officers of the union and a number of central executive members will be given the shortlist and I’m sure we’ll have a number of high calibre candidates,” she said.

However, Ms Hall would not speculate if the job will be filled in time for the Easter convention in Cork.

“I’m very anxious not to be sitting on the process at this point, but at the same time it is not something that should be hurried either,” she said.

The union’s acting general secretary John White is considered the ideal candidate by many prominent members but a number of high-profile past officers are also believed to be interested in the job. The position has been vacant since Charlie Lennon resigned after a dispute with elected officers of the union in late 2003.

Meanwhile, the ASTI’s 16,500 members may soon be asked to vote on whether to accept pay increases of 6% over 18 months under the second part of the Sustaining Progress deal.

The union’s central executive council (CEC) meets on Saturday to decide whether to reject the package or send it out to ballot.

Most of the country’s worker organisations voted in favour of the deal, which runs until June 2006, in a collective decision by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions last September to accept the latest social partnership programme.

But as one of the country’s few unions not affiliated to congress, ASTI had to wait for a separate offer from the Department of Education before considering the deal.

The 180-member CEC has the option of either rejecting it with a two-thirds majority or electing to hold a ballot of all members. Ms Hall said if a ballot is called, the executive has a number of further options.

“They can send the matter out to vote with a recommendation to reject or accept the deal, or they can leave it entirely up to members themselves,” she said.