For the ASTI, it is a case of once more into the breach. Its 40-page submission to the Labour Court is similar to the one it made to the Public Service Arbitration Board last year. The board dismissed the union's 30 per cent claim. The union is hoping the Labour Court will take a more sympathetic view.
There is no mention of any threat to the Leaving Cert examination in its submission, just vague references to its industrial campaign. But the message is clear; the Labour Court had better sort this one out or this year's Leaving Cert is in trouble.
The union has done a good job in demonstrating how teachers' pay has fallen behind other graduate professions. A report, prepared by Deloitte and Touche, tells us what most teachers already know: junior managers in the private sector are typically earning 2842 per cent more than classroom teachers with three years' experience. The gap between middle managers and experienced teachers is even wider.
The ASTI says teachers' pay needs to keep pace with the private sector to allow the education system to recruit the best and the brightest.
Despite this, the ASTI will have no truck with the benchmarking body which will review public sector pay in the context of changes in the private sector. The other teaching unions - the INTO and TUI - are happy to allow their work to be compared with the private sector. But the ASTI insists teaching is unique and cannot be compared to other work. It is clear from the ASTI submission it is offering nothing new in return for the 30 per cent. The message from the union is this: teachers have transformed the education system over the past decade. They want to be rewarded for changes already made, not future changes in work practices.
The ASTI says the union should be rewarded for the "effectiveness, flexibility and innovation" shown by secondary teachers in transforming the education system. Significant progress has been made in restructuring Senior Cycle (Junior Cert onwards) in school and in revising curricula.
But progress on other fronts has been patchy. The ASTI is sceptical about the radical reform of the Junior Cert favoured by the Department of Education and is unwilling to back continuous assessment of pupils.
On accountability, the ASTI says it has participated "despite reservations" with the very mild form of school inspection known as Whole School Evaluation. What it does not say is that the level of external accountability in Irish education is pitiful. Only about 3 per cent of teachers are inspected every year. Under ASTI rules, dating back more than two decades, teachers are not obliged to teach before an inspector.
On working hours, the submission cites evidence from 10 years ago to indicate how the working week of the average teacher in this State is similar to most other OECD states. The reality, however, is that the Irish school year - at 167 days - is one of the shortest in the OECD. Teachers in Northern Ireland and in Britain work more than 190 days.
In fairness, the ASTI provides compelling evidence of how teachers' pay has fallen behind. But it would have been stronger if it spelt out what the union is ready to do for 30 per cent.