ASTI comes in from the industrial relations cold

THE Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has taken a historic decision to end six years in industrial relations solitude.

Although less than one-fifth of the union’s 16,600 members voted, 80% of those who took part in the ballot earlier this month backed the proposal to re-affiliate with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The ASTI withdrew from the movement at the height of its pay dispute with the Government in 2000, and a motion to return to membership was strongly rejected at its 2003 annual convention.

It had been one of just three unions which was not a member of ICTU, whose affiliated organisations represent 550,000 workers.