The TUI at its conference gave the bluntest warning yet that if the benchmarking process does not deliver, the Government is facing trouble throughout the second-level system.
TUI president Mr John MacGabhann was unequivocal about what lay ahead if benchmarking proved to be a disappointment. "The time, colleagues, is nigh and the message is: pay the teachers or pay the price," he told delegates in Cork.
He said the TUI would take "decisive" industrial action which would not stop until a decent pay award was conceded.
He said the TUI "simply cannot afford to allow the profession to fall into disrepair". In a hard-hitting speech he said the union had chosen the benchmarking route rather than open confrontation with the Government, but this might not continue.
"We simply cannot allow education to be relegated. We simply will not allow teachers to be impoverished," he said.
His views were echoed by the TUI's general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, who said the union had the same objectives as the ASTI, but had chosen different methods so far. "We have chosen the path of negotiation and discussion. They have chosen the route of confrontation and conflict," he said.
Mr MacGabhann criticised recent statements by politicians. "Lip service paid by our politicians to our cause doesn't pay our bills. We have proven in our benchmarking submissions that the salary of teachers and lecturers needs to be substantially increased in order to attract and retain within the profession graduates of suitable calibre."
People constantly claimed to be concerned about the demoralised state of the teaching profession, but the best way to express this concern was a substantial rise for TUI members. "Anything less will be a betrayal of the profession, a betrayal of the education system and, fundamentally, a betrayal of the pupils and students within that system," he said.
The TUI's members have not gone on strike over pay and instead have put their faith in the benchmarking process. It was clear in Cork yesterday the union expected this faith to be rewarded.
"If, by any mischance, the award proposed by the benchmarking body is inadequate then this union will embark upon a campaign of systematic, decisive, unapologetic industrial action early in the new school year and will sustain the action until we secure an appropriate award," said Mr MacGabhann.
He also made it clear any pay award should come without strings attached. "We have also made it clear that we will not allow that teachers must do more in order to secure a fair and just award."