Unease is spreading in the staffroom.

"Are we going to be hung out to dry?" queries Joe who is due to take early retirement in June. "What do you mean?" says Mary, the militant school steward.

"If the others get benchmarking brought forward and an interim payment, where will that leave us?"

"It will leave you on the picket line until we get our 30 per cent," Mary says firmly.

Pat, who has only joined the staff this year, brings up the futility of sitting in an empty classroom with the students at home in bed.

"Could we not catch an ASTI flu?" he asks innocently.

"We'll get ASTI piles if we have to sit much longer in those freezing empty classrooms," interjects an increasingly disgruntled Joe.

"I don't think the whole thing was well thought out at all, at all," ventures Sean, who is a great fan of Miley in Glenroe.

Patricia is sick and tired of the teacher-bashing on radio.

"It starts with Morning Ireland and goes on non-stop to Joe Duffy." Then she rounds on Pat Kenny.

"How many hours per week does he work - and he is gone for the summer months."

The principal arrives to remind class tutors to tell students not to turn up for class on the dates mentioned in his recent letter to the parents.

Once he has departed, attention is quickly turned to the Joint Managerial Body.

"There is something fishy when management supports us," says Mary. "It is quite obvious that they are piggy-backing on our pay claim." Bill, who is a past master at rising Mary, states in a very authoritative voice that he has it on reliable authority that all schools are going to get substantial grants to cover supervision provision in the forthcoming Budget.

At this pronouncement, Joe sees red.

"What did I tell you - we'll be hung out to dry - benchmarking will be brought forward for which Joe O'Toole will get the credit and the JMB will get money in the Budget to cover supervision costs - so what are we left with?"

Quicker than it takes time to say 30 per cent, he blurts out, "I'll tell you what we'll get, ASTI pneumonia from walking around in circles outside the school gate, a dose of ASTI piles from sitting on our own in cold classrooms, and worst of all end up £600 worse off in our pay packets!"

An eerie silence descends on the staffroom. The bell for the end of the 11 a.m. break and the rising din from the corridors signals that the work of educating the citizens of tomorrow must go on. The longer the dispute goes on, the more disillusioned will become all the Joe's of staffrooms around the State while younger members will think of pastures new.