PIERCE H. PURCELL,
Sir, - So, Bernadine O'Sullivan is at it again (July 23rd). On March 4th last in a letter to your newspaper she referred to me as the "retired member who was ASTI president almost 30 years ago". Now, I see, she calls me "an ASTI member who had applied for but was refused endorsement [of his Seanad candidature\] by the ASTI".
As I asked before in the columns of your paper, what is so obnoxious about the word "Purcell" that it dare not be named in some ASTI circles? I fervently hope that Bernadine has nothing to do with the design of my headstone. I can imagine the result: "Here lie the mortal remains of an anonymous ASTI member who shared some of my hobbies, such as writing to the papers and losing elections."
She quotes a lot of statistics in her letter, but as far as I am concerned, there's only one statistic that really matters: the majority of ASTI members who are NUI graduates did not vote for her. I hope that the symbolism of this statistic is clear to the ASTI leadership, and that the sensible views of the outgoing president, Catherine Fitzpatrick, are finally heeded. The message is loud and clear. There is no place in my trade union for the bankrupt tactics of refusing to negotiate and refusing to participate in the normal trade union and collective bargaining structures.
I have met many secondary teachers in the past few weeks, and they are all asking the same questions: What is going to happen in September, when the schools re-open? Are we going to be allowed to vote on the supervision/substitution offer, like the INTO and TUI? What strings will be attached to the 13 per cent benchmarking offer? Will we be ballotted on this offer?
In the dim and distant past, when the ASTI was numerically far weaker than it is now, its leaders did not hesitate to take on the might of both State and Church in the pursuit of better working conditions for secondary teachers. By tough and clever negotiating the union achieved improvements for its members - e.g., the reduction of class-contact hours from 26 to 22 a week; a proper system of contracts which ensured security of tenure once a teacher's probationary period was successfully completed; a redeployment scheme to protect the employment of redundant teachers, and so on.
Nowadays secondary teachers seem to be permanently demoralised, and I don't blame them. However, now that this Seanad election is out of the way, I see light at the end of the tunnel. There are plenty of sensible people on the executive and on the standing committee of the ASTI, and it is up to them to devise effective strategies. May I suggest that reaffiliating to the ICTU and co-operating with the other public service and teachers' unions would be a good start?
As a pensioner, I am not at all impressed by the claims of those who profess to be concerned at the plight of pensioners, while at the same time keeping the ASTI out of Congress. Also, the introduction of a system of school-based voting would be greatly welcomed by many teachers, who find it difficult to attend branch meetings.
Finally, I too wish to congratulate the three NUI senators Joe O'Toole, Fergal Quinn and Brendan Ryan on their re-election. - Yours, etc.,
PIERCE H. PURCELL, Davis Terrace, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.