By
Deirdre Cronin
Dublin South City, INTO
At last year�s INTO conference an important motion was passed directing our CEC in all negotiations affecting pay and conditions "to deliver substantial salary increases for teachers, without a pay pause or linkage to further changes in work practices". Furthermore we instructed the CEC to "refuse to accept the inclusion of a "no strike" clause. The experience of pay increases only for changes in work practices has not been good for teachers. The changes demanded lengthening our working hours but fail to make any positive contribution to the quality of our education system. As we said at the time the areas that needed action were class size, school buildings and special needs. The new context of conceding to demands for change has also had a disastrous impact on new teachers. Unbelievably we now have a situation where we are allowing the erosion of pension rights to take place right before our eyes.
Yet is there an alternative?
There most certainly is. In Britain public servants faced with attacks on their pension rights have taken action. When requests and negotiation with government failed, instead of accepting the �new reality�, they were galvanised into action. We cannot allow ourselves as trade unionists to be bought off by government peddled propaganda that there is nothing we can do. The latest CSO statistics published before Christmas predict population increases due to rising birth rates and immigration. Financial security in old age is something we should never be browbeaten into selling out. Look how jealously politicians have managed to guard their generous pension rights! The government has managed to silence our trade union movement at leadership level. The ICTU rarely even raises a murmur of opposition to government policy. A new form of business unionism is emerging. Remarkably SIPTU wants to build the second terminal in Dublin Airport with the McEvaddy brothers. Instead of fighting privatisation we have trade unions now increasingly collude in it. We have to rebuild a fighting spirit in our unions.
Bulletins like this one are aimed at creating an alternative voice in our unions.
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