Teaching unions to survey members about merger

Minister of Education Norma Foley (left) and TUI President David Waters (right) at the Teachers Union of Ireland Congress (TUI) in Killarney. Picture: Tommy Clancy

Ireland’s two largest post-primary teaching unions will launch a survey of their membership regarding a long-mooted amalgamation from next week.

President of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) Geraldine O’Brien announced the survey to merge with the Teaching Union of Ireland (TUI) at her union’s annual convention in Wexford on Wednesday but warned that such a merging of two large bodies "is not a simple process”.

She said the survey would open between April 10 and April 25 and will pose “two very simple questions”: are members in favour of both unions combining into one body, and if they are in favour of continuing the work towards that amalgamation.

Ms O’Brien said that once the results of the survey, to be carried out by private polling company Mi-Voice, are gathered and assuming they show a majority in favour of amalgamation, the aim would be to “progress to an eventual ballot as soon as practicable”.

While the merger would be subject to “vast amounts of consultation”, Ms O’Brien said, she warned members should be “under no illusion that this new union will not look like either the ASTI or the TUI” but rather would be “an entirely new union”.

TUI President David Waters (right) at the Teachers Union of Ireland Congress (TUI) in Killarney. Picture: Tommy Clancy

“It is important that all members feel included and respected in any amalgamation,” she said.

“A decision of this magnitude needs total transparency,” she said adding that bringing the two bodies together could lead to “a shift in the Irish education system”.

“It is fair to say that our potential to shape the sector in our own image is not currently being reached. We only need to look at the previous year to see how successfully we can be when we stand together,” Ms O’Brien said, in reference to the joint effort by the two unions to reject plans by Education Minister Norma Foley to introduce the sitting of certain Leaving Cert subject exams in fifth year rather than sixth year.

A merger of the two unions has been mooted for some time with negotiations having officially opened between the bodies last year.

If successful, it would see nearly 40,000 educators at both secondary, further and higher education levels brought together in one union, with proponents of the merger saying it would serve to give members a more powerful voice within the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie also broached the issue of a merger during his annual report speech on Wednesday morning, and said that both parties had agreed there be no “preconditions” prior to an amalgamation.

Minister of Education Norma Foley at the Teachers Union of Ireland Congress (TUI) in Killarney. Picture: Tommy Clancy

He said that “the truth is that progress has been fairly slow” with both sides “anxious” not to rush matters.

“As you can see, it can only proceed on a basis that every member can see themselves being accommodated and that a new structure will respect the traditional decision-making processes of both the ASTI and the TUI,” Mr Christie said.

“If we get a sense that members feel the work should continue then we will do that. If we get the sense that there is no appetite for this then we will discontinue the process.”

Mr Christie did shut down the possibility that the ASTI might merge with just the second level unit of the TUI, thus keeping that union’s higher and further education branches separate.

He said:

It’s either join the ASTI and TUI as is, or forget about it. We’re wasting our breath seeking a third option.

Separately, Mr Christie spoke on the issue of senior cycle reform, saying the union is “still not where we want to be” in terms of the current timing of the Leaving Cert oral examinations.

Those exams are currently being held during the Easter holidays, a hangover from the covid pandemic which the ASTI has made no secret of its opposition to.

“It is regrettable that the ASTI demand that the oral examinations also be returned to within school term has not been met,” he said, describing the current practice as “neither a sound educational or logistical decision”.

“Students were again this year enormously and intensively stretched to perform across a range of subjects over a tight timeframe,” he said.

He added that the State Examinations Commission has assured the ASTI in 2023 that holding the orals at Easter would not “indicate the timing of these tests in perpetuity”.

“We will continue to press hard on this issue for next year,” Mr Christie said.