ASTI 'should consider action to protect pensions'

THE Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) should consider industrial action to protect pension rights for future members, the union's acting general secretary John White said yesterday.

He urged ASTI members to consider rejoining the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to pursue this and other pay objectives. But elected officials have ruled out any return to ICTU, which the teachers' union decided to leave four years ago.

Government changes announced in the budget and recently enacted mean new teachers can no longer retire on full pension before the age of 65 and may have to work two or three years later before stepping down.

Mr White agreed with delegates at the ASTI annual convention that these measures are a major cause of concern, given that pensions are effectively deferred pay.

"I have always believed that industrial action represents the failure of negotiation but members should defend these schemes by whatever means necessary," Mr White said.

He said the pay element of a further 18 months of the Sustaining Progress national wage agreement has yet to be agreed, including a further public service pay benchmarking exercise.

"I believe there should be open debate within the ASTI, free from rancour, on whether a policy of staying outside such negotiations was a short-term tactic or a long-term strategy," Mr White said.

Tipperary delegate Pierce Purcell said the union should go back into ICTU and lead the fight with other public service unions on the pension issue.

But most other speakers, including president-elect Susie Hall, said ASTI would achieve more if it remained outside the congress.

"Just last week we saw how widows, a group outside ICTU, managed to get the Government to reverse its decision on their pensions. We have huge strength and if widows could achieve all that with little resources, surely ASTI can do the same," Ms Hall said.

Mr White told delegates the union should leave its history of in-fighting behind to achieve professional salaries and good working conditions for teachers.

"All of the so-called internal dissension and wrangling in our union can be dissipated if we rededicate ourselves to that fundamental principle.

"We must move forward in a united, coherent way, focused on policy rather than personality," he said.

Mr White has been acting general secretary since Charlie Lennon stepped down from the job last November following disputes with some elected officials, rooted in the union's pay dispute three years ago.

Former president PJ Sheehy came within a vote of replacing Patricia Wroe as the union's honorary treasurer yesterday.

The ASTI standing committee decided last week to pay €76,000 legal costs of one of its members, Bernard Lynch, who took the union to court three years ago. The union paid Mr Lennon a severance package of €200,000 but also incurred hefty fees on legal advice and court representation before his departure.