Delegates to a special conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have voted by 320 to 63 to enter talks on a successor to the Partnership 2000 pay pact. Despite the overwhelming majority there were sharp clashes between the SIPTU president-designate, Mr Des Geraghty, and some of the teachers' leaders over public service pay.
Mr Geraghty was speaking immediately after the general secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, Mr Jim Dorney, had warned delegates that there was "unfinished business arising from the Programme for Competitiveness and Work." He was one of several public service union leaders who said there was a need to catch up with nurses.
"We, together with most other public service unions, settled within the guidelines of 5 to 6 per cent, the recommended guidelines, on pay. Others, through more vigorous action, got substantially more.
"We want that gap bridged, there is no question about it, and we want it bridged as a priority outside the agreement. If that isn't done, and I say it with the firm support of my executive, we will not support the continuation of talks" [on a successor to Partnership 2000].
He said there were young computer graduates who were earning as much after two years in private industry as their lecturers at colleges of technology.
Mr Geraghty said that survival into the next millennium "is entirely dependent on our ability to manage economic success effectively". There was already a danger of "rack-renting landlords, the builders, the professional classes and even members of the political class who dip their hands in corruption" destroying by their greed the gains that had been made since the 1980s.
SIPTU favoured a basic pay rise with further tax cuts. He also said that it would be a mistake "to take the eye off the ball of the social wage."
Referring to "catch-up" claims Mr Geraghty said: "You can chase pay for a long time - and I want to say this to public service representatives here - but you don't live on the moon. Don't expect that private sector workers are going to sit back and see you going in for your special, and your other special and your other special, plus the other national pay agreements and say, `That's grand. We don't notice'.
"And I'd say to Jim Dorney, don't be surprised that some young person who left the education system came back with more money after two years because the level of productivity, the level of commitment to change, the development of the economy in the private sector are leading the world.
"We are not doing it in the public sector, and there is a challenge to all of us to do it." He said trade unionists should be committed to ensure that the people had a public service that was worthy of a modern, efficient economy which the private sector worker was giving.
"Then we can soldier together and we can be comrades in ensuring that there is a move forward for all of us.
"But if we descend into mere sectionalism, if we descend into differentials as we did in the past, if we descend into the worst form of dog-eat-dog capitalism, because that is what it is about, the strong will succeed and the poor will go to the wall," Mr Geraghty said.
Ms Bernardine O'Sullivan, president of the Association of Secondary TeachersIreland, said young teachers entering the profession with enthusiasm and commitment were leaving within a couple of years because of the poor pay.
"Your children are suffering," she told delegates. "It's in your interests to see teachers paid as professionals."
Teachers had not gained anything from the past two national agreements, she said. Teachers had to cope with so much change that they could give other trade unionists "grinds in productivity."
Another ASTI delegate, Ms Irene Irish from Wexford, said she was appalled at Mr Geraghty's remarks, and teachers would be better off outside the ICTU.