Bernadine O'Sullivan's wing is no longer a clique or a cabal. It now enjoys near total domination of the ASTI leadership, writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor
This conference has represented a stunning triumph for those loyal to Bernadine O'Sullivan. A new leadership has been installed. Those loyal to Charlie Lennon have been routed. And the union has reaffirmed its opposition to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the partnership process and the Government.
It is a victory that has been achieved at a price. The atmosphere at this year's conference was the most poisonous I have experienced. Pierce Purcell, a moderate former president of the union, tells of how people moved away from him in the bar and around the corridors lest they be seen as mixing with the enemy. As is now customary, journalists were subjected to streams of abuse and intimidation.
The ferocious level of anger seems entirely disproportionate. Teachers are grossly underpaid and under-appreciated. More than any other professional group, their status has been rolled over by the arrival of the Celtic Tiger. But what, in practical terms, is achieved by barracking, shouting and intimidation?
Charlie Lennon looked exasperated and forlorn amid all the commotion. His gamble of appealing to the middle ground and the grassroots has appeared to backfire spectacularly. In truth, it hardly mattered whether he had spoken out about the "dissident group" in the union. Plans to unseat the Lennon wing had been under way for months; this week just marked the latest phase of the crusade.
The Bernadine wing now enjoys near total dominance of the union leadership. Three of the five officers of the union oppose the current leadership. By September, Charlie Lennon will be working with a president (P.J. Sheehy), a vice president ( Pat Cahill) and a treasurer (Patricia Wroe), all of whom have been implacable opponents of the leadership.
There is no sign of any campaign to remove Charlie Lennon. Yesterday, one out of 600 delegates did call for his resignation but this demand drew a very muted response. Maybe even those who oppose Charlie Lennon, believe there has been enough blood-letting to be going on with.
The next test for the new leadership will come on June 30th with the release of the benchmarking report on pay. The ASTI, alone among the teaching unions, refused to co-operate with the process. Joe O'Toole of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has been very clear about what he wants from the benchmarking. This includes a halving of the 25-point pay scale for teachers and salaries of between €25-50,000 for unpromoted teachers.
The ASTI has been much less specific. What is it exactly that the union needs to satisfy its demands? No one seems to know. There are now three scenarios facing the union:
• The best-case scenario is that benchmarking will fail to deliver for any of the three teaching unions by offering a pay increase of less than 10 per cent. This would vindicate the ASTI strategy and leave the consensus club headed by Joe O'Toole looking very uncomfortable.
• The worst-case scenario is that the INTO and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) will accept the outcome of benchmarking, leaving the ASTI isolated. A benchmarking offer of, say, 12 per cent could split the teaching unions.
• The third scenario is that benchmarking will deliver the kind of increases demanded by Joe O'Toole. The ASTI would claim some credit for this but it would still be hard to justify a long war of attrition, which included a threat to the State exams.
The new leadership will shortly begin working on strategies to deal with each of these scenarios. But there is a sense that the union is predisposed to pick flaws in the benchmarking report.
The only way of nursing the wound in the ASTI is for the benchmarking body to present a sizeable pay increase and one which will have an immediate impact on teachers' salary cheques. Should this not materialise, there must be a real possibility of renewed strike action in the schools this autumn.
In the interim, the ASTI will stumble on, still riven by bitter divisions. The union's two main representatives, Charlie Lennon and Catherine Fitzpatrick, have seen their authority undermined. Yesterday Mr Lennon said people were a bit tired and emotional. It would be better for the executive to reflect on where the union was and where it was going in a cooler atmosphere next week.
In truth, this seems unlikely. The ASTI is in a state of perpetual flux. Members, parents and teachers had better fasten their seatbelts.