Sir, - We have had a graphic lesson in the past few weeks in what awaits any union which tries to go outside "voluntary" national pay agreements. ASTI has been relentlessly bullied back into line by the Government, the Labour Court and a solidly united media. Public opinion has been heavily turned against ASTI. As a result the Government faces none of the odium it deserves for its obduracy in propping up the PPF at all costs. This discredited deal is now disliked by employees across the public service, it is about to be broken by the private sector employers, and it would in any case have no chance of being approved if a ballot were held now.
I just want to express how angry I am at the wholly unbalanced way in which the media, parents and pupils have allowed themselves to be recruited, in effect, into the Government's campaign to preserve the PPF. Without the PPF, the teachers' demands would have been met at least half-way by now, and with little bitterness. I cannot see any reason why parents, students and trade unions should not have been prepared to unite solidly behind a demand that the teachers' demands be considered on their own undoubted merits and that the discredited PPF be put aside if necessary. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Barrett (IMPACT member), Leinster Square, Dublin 6.