PIERCE H. PURCELL,
Sir, - Clearly, I am the "retired member who was ASTI President almost 30 years ago", referred to in Bernadine O'Sullivan's letter of March 4th. Is the word "Purcell" so obnoxious that it dare not be named in some ASTI circles?
Why does she suggest that I "labelled" some ASTI members as "hardliners", when I did nothing of the sort? I did not design the headline on the article in The Irish Times of February 26th, as she well knows. This article quoted widely from a letter that I wrote to each member of the ASTI Executive. Ms O'Sullivan, as a CEC member, got a copy of this letter, in which the word "hardliner" never occurs.
In the letter I asked the CEC to consider doing the following:
1. Rescinding the directive to members to withdraw from voluntary supervision and substitution;
2. Sending the ASTI Labour Court submission on the 30 per cent salary Claim to the benchmarking body;
3. Re-affiliating the ASTI to the ICTU, and thereby engaging in normal mainstream trade union activity;
4. Formulating a joint strategy of industrial action with the INTO and TUI, in case the benchmarking report is unacceptable.
According to the recent survey of ASTI members, commissioned by the CEC, 74 per cent of the membership were in favour of "sending the ASTI Labour Court submission to the Benchmarking Body". In addition, 53 per cent favoured "taking no action [i.e., no industrial action\] until the Benchmarking Body reports".
Surely these statistics give me some justification for claiming that what I have written reflects the views of a majority of ASTI members.
Incidentally, what is the purpose of Ms. O'Sullivan's rather ageist description of me? She is hardly suggesting that my views should be disregarded just because I'm a 62-year old pensioner, is she? I may have one foot in the grave, but I'm still running marathons. - Yours, etc., PIERCE H. PURCELL, Davis Terrace, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.