The largest union for second-level teachers has decided not to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Government's new pay review body this morning, but has refused to rule out taking part in the coming months. This refusal was seen by sources as a slight softening of the union's line.
The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) said it currently had no interest in taking part in the benchmarking body. But its general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, would not rule out future participation.
"I would never say never in relation to the benchmarking process," he told The Irish Times. However, he said, it would have to be radically transformed if the ASTI was to join.
The ASTI begins the second week of its industrial action this Wednesday in pursuit of a 30 per cent pay claim. Pupils have already lost two days of school due to the campaign.
Observers said the ASTI might be prompted to participate if it saw the other two unions making clear progress. The other unions, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), are attending today and hope the talks will progress far enough to tempt the ASTI to take part.
The general secretary of the INTO, Senator Joe O'Toole, said he was hoping to "clarify" matters for all teachers today. A fast-tracking process and getting a "down payment" from the Government were the priorities.
Mr Lennon said the union had not received an invitation to today's meeting at Government Buildings from the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.
A weekend poll by the IMS/ Irish Independent showed a significant slippage in support for the ASTI campaign. This resumes on Wednesday, when its 16,000 members withdraw again from supervision duties.
This will lead to the closure of most schools because managers claim the health and safety of pupils cannot be guaranteed.
Supervision will also be withdrawn on the 23rd, 28th, 29th and 30th. A national strike is planned for December 5th.
Mr Lennon said nobody in the ASTI was particularly surprised at the poll findings. "When you are taking industrial action you expect a certain number of people to be unhappy with it. We always expected that," he said.
The TUI general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, will also be attending today's meeting. He said his union's aim would be to bring forward the findings of the body to next year. Today's meeting is likely to be mainly procedural with little chance of substantive issues being raised.
The ASTI standing committee has rejected a proposal to escalate the dispute on December 5th, the next strike day, by picketing 50 extra schools in which the majority of teachers are members of the TUI. Many schools have ASTI and TUI members working together.
As reported in The Irish Times, the union's strategy committee agreed last week to picket schools with fewer than 10 ASTI members. This would have reversed the current exemption from picketing for such schools.
It would have presented TUI members with the prospect of crossing ASTI pickets. However, the standing committee voted by an extremely narrow margin against this proposal, despite support for it among several leading members.