MORE THAN 250 national branch officers from teachers union the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) met in Portlaoise last night to formulate a plan of action to fight the pension levy, which was being described as “a pay cut and nothing more”.
“The mood is very, very strong,” said one member. “Teachers don’t want to strike, but if forced to, they will.”
Angry teachers expressed the need to “hit back” at the cuts that will see principals on a salary of €60,000 take a 20 per cent cut and teachers earning €40,000 lose 15 per cent of their income.
Tim Nelligan, teaching principal in Castleisland boys national school in Kerry said: “Ibec and Government spin has demonised the public service over the last six months and a lot of the anger among teachers and public servants is as a result of that.”
He described it as “a calculated campaign, a softening-up process for what has come now”.
Anne McCarthy of Belgrove senior girls school in Clontarf, Dublin, said teachers were being asked “to take a pension levy on top of a 1 per cent levy on top of a pay freeze, but the Government are not addressing their own issues of TD, Taoiseach and ex-taoisigh salaries as well as expenses”.
Ms McCarthy said: “I’m here because I feel the blatant unfairness of it, of trying to drive a wedge between the public and private sector”.
The effect of the Government’s plan was to pit “the lower paid against the extremely highly-paid workers”.
Dozens of increasingly passionate speakers reported the views of teachers in their branches.
Individual scenarios detailing the effect of the cuts on teachers and their families were heard, as were rallying calls to take action.
While there was a view that cuts were to be expected, teachers said they were “in shock” at the level and extent of the burden they are expected to bear.
INTO general secretary John Carr told the meeting: “We want a specific national, broad plan of action – not a series of panicked announcements governed by economic factors such as the bank guarantee scheme, the nationalisation of Anglo and the pay cuts this week.
“We need a credible road map or plan for the country,” Mr Carr added.
Suggestions and ideas put forward at the meeting represent the first step in the union’s plan of action and will be discussed at executive meetings planned to take place later this week.