How teacher unions have been divided and conquered

Teachers’ unions are usually at one on most issues: protecting pay rates, investing in education and improving outcomes for children.

But today, teachers’ representative bodies are deeply divided.

There is growing tension in staffrooms as the unions tackle a series of issues – pay restoration for new entrants, junior cycle reform and working additional hours – in starkly different ways.

There has also been very public bickering and baiting among some unions’ members across social media.

As strike action by the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) gets under way this week and – potentially – in the weeks ahead, there are concerns that divisions will deepen further.

The greatest potential for bad blood, most acknowledge, is in the community and comprehensive school sector, which tends to be represented by both of the main secondary teachers’ unions.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) teachers will be faced with the prospect of whether to help keep schools open in the face of industrial action by their colleagues and whether to pass picket lines or not.

Madeleine Ní Ghallchobhair, a teacher of Irish and English who graduated in 2012, feels there has been a deliberate strategy at Government level to divide the unions.

“In staffrooms permeated by a sense of inequality, where teachers were being paid three different wages based on their year of entry into the profession, it has been an uncomfortable subject for many,” she says.

“Now, there are staffrooms in dual union schools where equally qualified teachers doing equal work are being paid differently, depending on their union membership, too.”

Double whammy

One of the deepest fault lines centres on the best way to secure improved pay and conditions for new members, who were hit with a double whammy of a 10 per cent pay cut in 2011 and the abolition of qualification allowances a year later.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and TUI feel the best way of making progress is under the Lansdowne Road agreement.

Both unions have secured restoration of the graduate allowance – valued at up to €2,000 for post-2012 entrant members – along with other gains under the wider pay agreement.

This, they say, will see pay for new entrant members increase by between 15 and 22 per cent by January 2018.

Both unions acknowledge their deals do not amount to full restoration, though they insist they are committed to full parity through future talks.

They point out that full restoration was not within the scope of its negotiations – as this issue affects the entire public service.

By contrast, the ASTI has rejected the Lansdowne Road agreement. It is demanding “equal pay for equal work” and a timetable of when this will occur.

The union has secured an overwhelming mandate for industrial action: the first of seven days of strikes begins later this week.

Then there is the prospect of indefinite closure of about two out of three – or up to 525 – secondary schools when the union withdraws from supervision and substitution duties after the midterm break.

Ed Byrne, president of ASTI, accepts there have been gains under Lansdowne Road but says there is no such thing as partial equality.

“This is about the future of teaching and the future of education in this country,” says Mr Byrne.

“We are seeking to ensure that teaching is an attractive career at the start of teaching, and throughout a teacher’s career. We want all teachers to experience a dignified entry into teaching. We want them to be valued and respected and feel valued and respected.”

This cannot happen, he says, when teachers who have spent five or six years qualifying to teach are being treated differently than the colleagues they teach alongside.

The TUI’s general secretary John MacGabhann insists that incremental restoration of pay is a solid route forward towards pay parity.

“An issue remaining for us is to secure the value of the H Dip allowance for those recruited since the 1st of February, 2012,” says MacGabhann. “When that is restored there will be equalisation between that group and the 2011 group of teachers.”

“At that stage then, you would be dealing with an issue that is an across-the-public service issue. Because every single entrant to the public service from the 1st of January 2011 was hit by that 10 per cent cut.”

“That is something that has to be achieved and can only be achieved by the entire grouping of public service unions. We launched ourselves into a process. We knew it was going to take a period of time. And we knew equally it would have to be done incrementally.”

Dáil protest

Peter Mullan, of the INTO, says the union has secured gains for new entrants, but it isn't finished yet.

“In the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013, the INTO secured two pay-scale improvements for 2011 entrants. The HRA also equalised the 2011 scale with the pre-2011 scale at the top point, made progress towards closing the earnings gap and got the supervision and substitution payment back for all teachers.”

He said INTO has also challenged the legality of the cut to new entrant pay through the Equality Tribunal. The outcome of that case is currently on appeal to the Labour Court.

Mr Mullan describes last month’s agreement between the Department of Education and the INTO/TUI as “substantial progress” but says it does not resolve the issue of equal pay.

“The INTO will continue to work for full pay equality and will make that view clear to Government at a Dáil protest this week.”

Even if these issues are sorted, divisions remain in other areas such as junior cycle reform at second level. While TUI teachers are taking part in classroom-based assessments, ASTI teachers are not.

The two unions are also at odds over working additional “Croke Park” hours, as well as supervision and substitution duties.

If any deal is done, most commentators say it will have to ensure to be wide-ranging and ensure that no union is “thrown under the bus” – particularly the INTO and TUI which, in the eyes of Government, have helped maintain industrial relations peace.

It may seem that the teaching profession is looking through a glass darkly.

But for Ms Ní Ghallchobhair, whatever about the divisions, teachers as a whole have far more in common than what divides them.

“These attempts to divide and conquer will not succeed if all teachers stand together until we all have equal pay and educational reform that aims to improve education, not merely save money,” she says.