A century of independent spirit from the ASTI

AS THE Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) commemorates its centenary, it is rightly proud of its contribution to Irish education and of its record in protecting the interests of its members. Like all venerable organisations, it has a varied history, during which periods of achievement were followed by setbacks and occasionally by internal divisions. An examination of its fortunes reveals several important periods of transition. One of these occurred in the early 1970s; another, arguably, is taking place at this moment, writes JOHN CUNNINGHAM.

For a perspective on ASTI in the 1970s, it is worth examining the report on the Future Involvement of Religious in Education (known, for its alarming acronym, as the Fire report), prepared for Catholic school managers in 1973.

The association, Fire advised, was formed at a time of “low salaries, and negligible career opportunities” but it did not “adopt a militant attitude”, with the result that it was ineffective until the 1960s. It may have been true that the ASTI had not been “militant” historically, but it was wrong to describe it as ineffective. The union was instrumental in securing professional conditions for secondary teachers, it gained a salary advantage for them over other teachers, and it maintained that advantage.

The ASTI was insular – leaving the trade union movement in 1927 for example – but it was alert to what was achievable for its small membership in a clerically-dominated profession.

In the 1960s, a hardening in the union’s approach won concessions, the Fire report noted, but the ASTI/employer relationship would remain strained, because, it was “the essence of trade unionism” that a “younger, more progressive” element would use “every achievement . . . as a base for making further claims”.

In their analysis, Fire’s authors were influenced by contemporary developments. The ASTI was indeed being transformed by new members, who, responding to the threat to pay and status posed by the Ryan Tribunal, had pressed it into striking in 1969 (for the first time since 1920), and again in 1971. In the latter instance, younger teachers, frustrated by the cancellation of a planned work stoppage, protested at ASTI headquarters – in what was dubbed “the siege of Hume St”. The siege, arguably, heralded the refashioning of the ASTI by a network of mainly younger members, who, through sustained activism replaced an “old guard” on the association’s leading bodies.

Unsurprisingly, the authors of the Fire report were nostalgic for halcyon days when lay teachers had been docile, and apprehensive about a future when the “progressive” young would challenge their authority. But they were incorrect in their judgment in regard to the ASTI’s past ineffectiveness. What about their prediction of future discord?

ASTI re-affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) in 1969 and, after 1971, rebuilt relationships with the other teachers’ unions damaged during the Ryan Tribunal controversy. The greatest change, however, was in the association’s size. From about 3,000 members in the early 1970s, it grew to almost 10,000 a decade later. With increased size came greater leverage, but the evidence indicates that the ASTI engaged constructively with school managements during the 1970s – notably in the protracted negotiations about deeds of trust for community schools. Then, at the start of the 1980s, alongside the INTO and the TUI, the association took advantage of political circumstances to secure large pay increases. Subsequently, the need to defend education, brought the unions into an effective alliance. Around 1990, a new “super-union” of teachers seemed likely, but, largely due to personality factors, this was not achieved.

During the 1970s and 1980s, there was considerable development in the ASTI’s professional apparatus. Revenue generated by rising membership enabled it to recruit additional employees at a time when increasing complexity in industrial relations made this necessary. Specialist negotiators, educationists, and others, joined the association, while dynamic general secretaries – Kieran Mulvey in the 1980s; Charlie Lennon in the 1990s – played key roles in Ictu and were influential advocates of social partnership after 1987.

During the “Celtic Tiger” era, however, many teachers became disenchanted with social partnership. Unhappiness with meagre pay rises, and irritation that these were linked to productivity, culminated in ASTI’s disaffiliation from Ictu in 2000, allowing it to go it alone in pursuit of substantial pay increases. In its pay campaign, the ASTI became isolated, from other unions, including those representing teachers. Divisions emerged within the association, but unlike the early 1970s, these were not along generational lines. Rather they reflected a clash of trade union philosophies. It would be an over-simplification to state that the division was between the industrial relations professionals and certain voluntary activists, but ASTI’s full-time officials regarded the decision to break with Ictu as counter-productive, while for a period the majority of those elected by the members supported the go-it-alone strategy. Ultimately, there would be an unsatisfactory end to the pay campaign – even if it was argued that ASTI’s militancy secured above average benchmarking award for all teachers – and recriminations ensued. Among the consequences was the departure of the general secretary towards the end of 2003.

The ASTI has faced challenges recently, some of them similar to those of the 1970s. The generation of activists who joined in “the siege of Hume St”, and who oversaw the union’s transition in the 1970s and 1980s is now retiring. The association continues to grow – to more than 18,000 at the last count – and much of the former acrimony is gone. It has rejoined Ictu, and other bridges are also being rebuilt. In the past month, to give one example, for the first time ever a ballot on industrial action in opposition to the Government’s handling of the economic crisis was organised jointly with the other teachers’ unions.

Dr John Cunningham of NUI Galway is the author of the forthcoming The History of the ASTI