Teachers' Dispute: The ASTI must revisit its democratic roots if it is to do its job, writes Pierce H Purcell, former president of the ASTI and candidate for the Seanad

A book I never tire of reading is Animal Farm by George Orwell. Its subtle wit takes some beating. At the outset we meet Old Major, an elderly retired boar. In his retirement he has plenty of time to consider the nature of life, and to formulate his conclusions about the working classes.

A similar consideration of the teaching classes in this country, particularly secondary teachers, has absorbed me (an elderly, retired, er, ... person) during the past 18 months.

Up to the autumn of 2000, the secondary teachers' trade union, the ASTI, worked away, like many other unions, in relative obscurity. Since then, however, one would need to have been living on the far side of the moon not to have heard of the association.

Early in the year 2000, secondary teachers lodged a claim for a 30 per cent salary increase. The claim was pursued by the ASTI through all the usual negotiating channels, unfortunately to no avail. It was only when all avenues other than benchmarking had been exhausted that the ASTI reluctantly resorted to industrial action. Everyone remembers the secondary teachers' rally outside the Dáil, the ASTI pickets outside the schools and the unhelpful activities of some parents and pupils during that time.

This industrial action didn't work.The teachers did not get a rise in salary. It is easy to be wise after the event, but I believe that some awkward questions must now be confronted by the ASTI leadership.

One is obvious: How do teachers achieve a substantial salary increase? The other may appear less urgent, but in my view it is also vitally important: How can the ASTI best serve and represent the interests of its members, or, to put it another way, do the union's present structures best facilitate true democracy?

At the risk of rushing in where angels fear to tread and ultimately being proved a fool, I believe that some ASTI members are less than satisfied with the union at present. There's no scientific proof for this, but there is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence - the low turnout at ASTI branch meetings, the very low turnout at recent important votes (I've heard that in some branches it was as low as 8 per cent) and the results of the recent survey of members on tactics to advance the salary claim.

For many members the important statistic from the survey was the 74 per cent who voted in favour of sending the ASTI Labour Court submission to the benchmarking body. One asks how does this square with the recent decision of the executive to have nothing to do with benchmarking. Does the executive really reflect the views of the members?

These points can be regarded as symptoms. They indicate a union that, while being basically as strong as a bull, is seriously in need of a healthier lifestyle. Ordinary ASTI members feel unable to make their voices heard. How can this be rectified?

It's easy enough to identify problems. Coming up with answers is a different matter entirely.

The vast majority of secondary teachers are ASTI members. Their union subscriptions are deducted automatically from their salaries. Yet many of them do not identify with the union.

In many parts of the country, for example in my neck of the woods in Tipperary, the branch area is vast. Most members have to travel long distances to union meetings. Many find that they just have no time. Their professional tasks, such as correcting homework and preparing classes, along with the demands of their families, prevent their attendance. The same goes for teachers in large urban areas, such as Dublin. If they have to commute to and from school, they're often lucky to arrive home by 7 p.m.

Clearly, the solution will have to include some radical re-structuring of the union, which will make it easy for a substantial majority of ASTI members to be active in the decision-making processes. "Ordinary" members must be enabled to feel that they own the union, and that decisions are not dictated from on high.

The simplest solutions seem to me to be school-based meetings and postal ballots. These innovations would involve major changes in the rules and in the traditions of the ASTI, but wouldn't it be worth it, if it meant greater democracy and an interested and enthusiastic membership? If outdated structures militate against the members, let them be scrapped.

Finally, back to the immediate problem. How can secondary teachers get a good salary increase? Certainly not by cutting themselves off from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, or by ignoring benchmarking, or by doing nothing! At this very moment secondary teachers' salaries are being negotiated in benchmarking by our colleagues in other unions.The TUI and the INTO have lodged a 34 per cent claim in benchmarking. An outcome is expected at the end of June. If the ASTI negotiators were to participate in benchmarking, even at this late hour, it is possible that they could influence the result for the better. They can still prepare strategies for joint industrial action with the other two teachers' unions, in the event that the benchmarking report is unsatisfactory.

It is awful that teachers should have to be thinking in these terms, but the reality is that a good professional salary is vital, if secondary teaching is to continue to attract the best graduates.