It may not be Last Night of the Proms but the spectacle of some 12,000 secondary teachers singing The Fields of Athenry outside the Dail yesterday was still enough to lift the senses.
The union's standing committee - all 22 of them packed tightly on the lorry that doubled as a stage - sang out strongly. Some of them punched the air in delight.
There were cheers when someone shouted "We shall overcome". There was hissing and catcalls when the name of Senator Joe O'Toole was mentioned. Senator O'Toole, the head of the primary teachers' union, the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), stepped out from Seanad Eireann to observe the rally; he was about as welcome as Bobby Molloy at a taxi-drivers' Christmas golf outing. The INTO is inside the social partnership structure that created the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness PPF), while ASTI, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland is not.
After the rally, several ASTI members confronted Senator O'Toole and asked him to account for himself. The senator tried to explain the PPF, its benchmarking process and the progress already made. It was a waste of time. ASTI was not in listening mode yesterday.
The teachers were reassured by all the speakers. ASTI would not relent. It would not sell out. After eight days of students losing out on their lessons, the message from ASTI to the Government was that there was more to come. As someone somewhere once said: "You ain't seen nuthin' yet!"
Despite yesterday's optimism and the success of the rally, ASTI is no nearer to securing its 30 per cent pay demand. In the cold light of day, the union's campaign is still flagging. It still has to work out a coherent strategy to secure its 30 per cent. It still has to find a forum in which to press its claim. It still has to give an indication of its bottom line. Several senior members of the organisation still have to work out any kind of exit strategy.
The union appears more isolated than ever. The other teaching unions - INTO and the Teachers' Union of Ireland - remain cosily inside the partnership tent. Unlike ASTI, they signed up for the PPF and they are making steady gains. Payments under the new benchmarking pay review body have been fast-tracked and the unions are confident the process will deliver substantial pay increases.
ASTI will have no truck with it.
In the past week, some within ASTI have begun to realise that "No, No, No" is not much of an industrial relations strategy. In the Berkeley Court Hotel on Monday, ASTI sat down with the Minister for Education Dr Woods to discuss the dispute. Both sides formally laid out their position. ASTI said it would not come back inside the partnership tent; the Minister said the PPF was the only game in town.
Behind the scenes, work on a peace formula is continuing. The tentative deal is as follows: the Government will establish some kind of teaching commission or special review body for all teachers which will feed into the benchmarking body. It is an attempt to square the circle. ASTI will be looked after, the partnership deal will not be undermined and the other teaching unions - who will not tolerate any sweetheart deal for ASTI - would not be too upset.
Twenty-four hours ago there was a decent prospect this formula would, at the very least, lead to a suspension of ASTI's action. Charlie Lennon, the union's general secretary, said as much on RTE's FiveSeven Live on Monday night. But it may be that yesterday's march has changed the atmosphere. The coterie within ASTI, grouped around the colourful former president Bernadine O'Sullivan, will be heartened by yesterday's show of strength. For all that, the union still needs a forum for negotiation.
Bernadine was in vintage form as she whipped her flock into a frenzy. It was all good knockabout stuff. The Standard Enemies of The Teachers got a good bashing - the media, the Government, the Minister and the other teaching unions. The thinly-coded message to the ASTI bigwigs was that teachers would not be fobbed off with what she called "dressedup" benchmarking.
Bernadine told her audience: Beware of benchmarking! Bench marking means performance-related pay! Benchmarking is dangerous! Benchmarking is the root of all evil, or so it seemed from her speech.
ASTI faces some stark choices this morning. It could cut a deal with the Government, claim credit for the concessions given to the other teaching unions and suspend its action. It could look forward to the benchmarking process and even to performance evaluation pay. What has the vast majority of hard-working, dedicated teachers to fear from performance evaluation?
Alternatively, it could press on, close more schools for more days and disrupt the Leaving Certificate oral exams after Christmas. Such a course would see public support for teachers continue to drain away and it would make ASTI look increasingly desperate.
It is a bizarre situation. The Government wants to cut a decent deal but ASTI remains stubbornly outside the partnership tent and won't come in - even though its members have already pocketed 5.5 per cent under the PPF. The union has built a very large hole for itself. Will it now continue to dig?
