Union split down the middle

IN SPITE OF the compromise result arrived at by last week's ASTI conference, the unions remains badly split on its attitude to the Government's offer on pay and conditions.

Only 60 votes separated the two opposing options which emerged with the most support from the eight hour debate. Although the leadership got the mandate to re-center talks that it had been seeking, the opposition was able to garner

70 votes for a proposal that teachers effectively walk away from the entire offer.

This in spite of virtually the entire standing committee supporting the option of re-negotiation. Indeed amid claims that the committee was unrepresentative, there were calls for it to be elected at conference a situation which pertained until three years ago instead of in the regions.

Extraordinarily and in contrast to the TUI the debate was held in closed session. This decision was taken by the steering committee a week before the conference, though the media were only informed on the day before the debate. So much for openness, transparency and accountability.

The only reason put forward for the exclusion was that some members were angry at the presence of a journalist at a central executive committee meeting earlier in the month. The journalist from the Sunday Tribune had been brought into the meeting by a CEC member but was later asked to leave.

In the event, the conference in Killarney did not produce the bloodletting that some expected. The standing committee and the leadership came in for some criticism but escaped the formal votes of censure meted out to the TUI leadership at its conference.

Indeed, the leadership was able to use the pay debate to explain its role in the negotiations to the satisfaction of some of its critics. The marathon debate had a therapeutic effect on many delegates those opposed to the offer know that the progress of the negotiations will be reviewed by the CEC in May.

The focus on the pay issues left little time for discussion of other matters. The Minister came, drew some weak applause but little criticism, and left. Debates on education, discipline and other issues were generally lacklustre, and the thorny, question of the religious in the ASTI was not taken for lack of time.