Sir, - The recent rush to Government Buildings by the trade union leaders and the incessant media coverage of rising inflation levels highlight the folly of the same leaders' unseemly desire to settle on a package such as the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
The ASTI, being one union that stood outside the "collective wisdom" of ICTU, found itself pilloried in the press and elsewhere for the folly of such a stance. It does not look quite so foolish now.
The ASTI pointed out the few gains made under Partnership 2000, the final phase of which offers workers 1 per cent between April and October of this year. When the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness was being negotiated, inflation was already in excess of this figure. Let not the economic commentators, IBEC, or indeed the Minister for Finance lecture us now about wage restraint or threaten economic doom. In past agreements we teachers contributed to recovery, provided the competitiveness but lost out on the partnership, and we teachers, as providers of a key public service are now simply demanding our fair reward. Partnership agreements work when results are real and equitable, not when used as instruments of control. - Yours, etc.,
P.J. Sheehy, Coolgreany, Gorey, Co Wexford.