University teachers will fight any proposed Government pay cuts by withdrawing “all concessions” made under the original Croke Park I agreement.
The Irish Federation of University Teachers (Ifut) voted unanimously on Saturday to resist pay cuts and reject any renegotiation of Croke Park II.
Chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey was asked to make contact with unions to determine if there was a prospect of a deal on the reduction of the Government's pay bill in the wake of the rejection of Croke Park II by public sector unions.
He is expected to report to Government within two weeks. Unions have said they expected pay agreements under the Croke Park I deal, reached in 2010, to continue until 2014.
Annual conference
At their annual conference in Dublin, Ifut members were outspoken about their opposition to any further pay cuts.
General secretary of the union Mike Jennings warned of the consequences of ending Croke Park I before the agreement has run out "in 2014".
“If they go ahead with the least advertised of their threats but the most lethally damaging, which is to break Croke Park I, they will not only have broken one single agreement, they will have destroyed the fabric of industrial relations,” he said.
“I want to appeal to social-democratically minded TDs, are you prepared to walk through the lobby, not just to stick it up to public servants but to ditch the whole system of industrial relations?”
'A mugging'
Proposer of the motion Joe Brady, from University College Dublin, described Croke Park II as "a mugging" which offered "nothing but pain" and "was never fair".
“This was the equivalent of somebody in a lane holding a knife up to your throat and saying I’m going to take your money however, I’d like to be your friend, so if you give me your money we can both walk away very happily,” he said.
There was no possibility of Croke Park II being tweaked, he said.
In advance of the motion, president of the union Dr Marie Clarke said there had been no real negotiations about Croke Park II, which the union had rejected by a three to one vote. "Threats and bullying more accurately describe the so-called negotiations."
