Teachers strike: Five major talking points
ASTI, the largest union representing secondary level teachers, have said they are striking for equal pay.
They point to the fact that teachers who started teaching after 2010 are on different pay scales to their colleagues, even though they have the same duties and responsibilities.
“Because many newly qualified teachers spend the first few years of their career in temporary and/ or part-time teaching positions, they experience the double whammy of a part-time income and an inferior pay scale,” the ASTI website says.
"We have members who are on the breadline, largely due to these salaries" says @astiunion General Secretary Kieran Christie on @RTERadio1
— Late Debate (@LatedebateRTE) October 13, 2016
Speaking ahead of the strike set out his stall on the issue.
“We have to use the resources available to provide equal treatment for all of the many people who have legitimate expectations of the government. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
So we can’t pick out one item, on one union's agenda and say ‘That is the sole issue on which we will make commitments’ - we have to have a balanced approach to all of the concerns all of the unions have, and I think people can see that’s fair and equal to everyone.”
With six further strikes days planned throughout November and December and with teachers expected to withdraw from supervision and substitution duties on Monday, November there are growing fears schools being closed for weeks.
The refusal of 17,500 ASTI members to do supervision or substitution work from Monday, November 7, will see nearly 400 schools close indefinitely.
Dozens more schools, where Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) members work alongside ASTI colleagues, face the same prospect. More than 100 other dual-union schools hope they can re-open, but only after staff they plan to recruit have been trained and Garda-vetted, which could be days or weeks after the mid-term.”
Minister for Public Expenditure Donohoe has said that until the Lansdowne Road agreement ends in 2018, special deals for ASTI teachers (or gardaí) cannot be made – or all public servants will want them.
"Those unions are being very, very clear with me that they want to ensure that their members' interests are dealt with, and if they see any change in relation to how we handle the Lansdowne Road Agreement, they will expect that change to be delivered for all the participants of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
"And that is not affordable to the country, either now or in the long run.”
Writing recently well known columnist and economist Eddie Hobbs had some thoughts on why the Government now face upcoming strikes across the public sector: “At the root of Ireland’s inability to modernise its health system and deal with the chronic morale problems across vital professions such as gardaí and nurses is our dysfunctional political system, which punishes long-term thinking in favour of short-term benefits for whatever baby is screaming loudest."
Speaking on this issue the President of Irish Second-Level Students' Union Jane Hayes Nally told Morning Ireland that while some students would be happy about having some days off she feared that students who struggle academically would be the ones affected most.
"We know the strike is a last resort for unions and it is ASTI's democratic right to strike, but we feel that students should be prioritised in this case because ultimately it affects the students more than anyone else.”
The people who are saying kids will be "very upset" by the teachers' strike clearly don't understand teenagers #asti #rtenews
— Kim Bielenberg (@KimBielenberg) October 25, 2016
There is little doubt that ultimately the level of public support will be a huge factor in this action.
So how do you feel?
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