TEACHER BALLOT:TWO OF the three teaching unions have voted to reject the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.
However, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) will delay any further protest action until after a key Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) meeting next month.
A meeting of the public services committee of Ictu, due in mid-June, will make the final decision on the deal based on the overall result of ballots by public service unions.
Last night the chairman of the committee, Peter McLoone, said he believed a majority of public service staff would vote in favour of the Croke Park agreement.
He said no one was “turning cartwheels” about the terms of the agreement, but it represented the most solid foundation stone for maintaining jobs, pay and pensions as well as public services.
The TUI voted by 75 per cent to 25 per cent against the deal.
ASTI members voted to reject it by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.
The executives of both unions had recommended rejection of the deal.
As expected, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the largest teaching union, won a strong endorsement for the deal – 65 per cent of members voted Yes, while 35 per cent voted No.
INTO’s 32,000 membership is equal to the combined membership of both the ASTI and the TUI.
Attention now switches to the approach taken by the ASTI and the TUI if Ictu backs the deal.
Asked whether the TUI would be bound by any overall decision in favour of the deal by public sector unions, TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said this would be decided after the final result was known next month.
In an article in The Irish Timeslast month, he hinted at a "go it alone" approach, saying the tyranny of the majority should not be allowed to "steamroll over a minority''.
The Croke Park deal promised no further public sector pay cuts until 2014 in exchange for changes in work practices.
The strong opposition to the deal among ASTI and TUI members reflects anger among teachers over pay and pension cuts totalling over 13 per cent.
There are also widespread concerns about a proposed review of the teaching contract, seen by many as giving the Department of Education carte blanche to change teachers’ working conditions.
Shortly before the ballot, the department issued a clarification saying there was no threat to teacher holidays, but this was not enough to convince many teachers.
Minister for Education Mary Coughlan also sought to build support for the deal, declaring she had no intention of “taking a machete to the teaching profession”.
But last night Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes said the long delay in providing clarifications to the teacher unions “shows an extraordinary incompetence on the part of Minister Coughlan’’.
Both the ASTI and the TUI will now come under pressure from key executive members to ratchet up their opposition to public service cutbacks. While the leaderships of both unions favour a moderate approach, key figures in both unions favour a “go it alone”strategy.
Last night a leading TUI figure said “outright opposition to the destruction of public services was now called for’’. Finbarr Geaney said the TUI’s rejection of the deal was not a mandate to go back into negotiation. The decisive No vote by members must be used as a means of building opposition to the Government across all unions.