The pressure on the ASTI to cut a deal at the Labour Court yesterday was intense. One source put it bluntly: "The court was inviting ASTI to peer over the cliff. It was telling it, in the most robust way, that there is no alternative to an agreement."
The ASTI has entered the talks in a weak position. Two weeks ago it had dismissed an eight-page Labour Court ruling with undue haste.
Yesterday, it was back poring over the entrails of the document and asking for "clarifications". It was all a long way from the dizzy heights of the ASTI campaign when hardliners put the 30 per cent pay demand on the table with an air of confidence and resolution.
There was no mention of the 30 per cent yesterday. Instead, the discussion was dominated by the question of an up-front payment. Charlie Lennon, the ASTI general secretary, was seeking something which could be put to members in a new ballot.
But the Government side was unwilling to provide any kind of "sweetheart" deal for the ASTI. The reason is simple. Under pressure from the other public service unions, and the two other teaching unions, the Government couldn't allow the ASTI to emerge from the talks smelling of roses.
This was the rock on which the proposed up-front payment for supervision perished. For a generation and more, unpaid supervision has been a running sore in the education system.
Teachers are asked to perform important tasks like supervision and to provide short-term cover for absent colleagues on what might be called "a nod-and-wink basis".
Despite pleas from school management groups, and despite an exchequer bursting with cash, the Government has failed to regularise the situation. For all that, few trade unionists in the other teaching unions were anxious to see the issue solved by an up-front payment to the ASTI. "Imagine how that would make us look," said one. "It would be seen as a great coup for ASTI. We would also get the money, of course, but it would be ASTI's victory."
Instead of one giant leap for the ASTI, the talk in the Labour Court yesterday was of more routine stuff, various "procedures and process" that might deliver more money. There was talk of a process on allowances which could, over time, provide more cash. There was talk of ASTI representation on the secretariat of the new benchmarking body, even though this offer has been doing the rounds for months.
The plan was that this would ease some of ASTI's suspicions about benchmarking, but it stopped short of giving it actual representation on the body itself.
There was also talk about the new "teaching forum", which will examine how the profession should respond to societal and curricular changes.
In its original recommendation, the court pointed to the potential of the forum. Essentially, it said the forum could modernise the current system where new demands - new curriculums, new subjects, new responsibilities - are grafted on to the daily work of a teacher in an unstructured, adhoc way.
The court sees the forum examining all non-pay elements of a teacher's role. But over the past week the ASTI has been looking at its wider potential. Some believe it could help pave the way for substantial pay increases for teachers. The view is this: a root-and-branch examination of the profession could only come up with one solution - more money for ASTI members.
Yesterday's talks were like that, concentrating on the nitty-gritty, the detail and the potential, rather than cash in the hand. Mr Lennon and his team of negotiators wanted to tilt the debate to more practical issues, but at 6 p.m. yesterday the talks appeared deadlocked over an up-front payment. The ASTI was also under pressure because options open to it have narrowed. For the past five months, the union has, when dissatisfied, walked away from the negotiating table and ratcheted up its programme of strike action. This option no longer seems so attractive.
Many teachers, who face losing six days' pay for the latest phase of strike action, are beginning to wonder what might be achieved by renewed militancy. The strikes, to date, were intended to push the Government towards compromise. Instead, the Government has dug in and ASTI's bluff has been called.
The union always believed that someone like Bertie Ahern, who favours compromise over confrontation, would roll over. It has not happened. The Taoiseach is not prepared to risk a confrontation with the rest of the public service unions. He is not prepared to throw over the PPF and public service pay policy.
There is nothing to suggest a further series of three-day strikes will change his mind.
The ASTI's options have also narrowed because of the astonishing public response to the advertisements seeking exam supervisors.
To date, more than 7,000 people have responded, nearly twice as many as the Department needs to run the exams in June.
This has changed the dynamic of the dispute. Irrespective of any strikes between now and June, it is now clear the Government can stage the exams. The Department faces severe problems in staging the oral and practical exams - and the task of finding examiners with the expertise will not be easy - but the Government's strategy is to cross every bridge when it comes to it. For now, it can run the exams in June, and that is bad news for the ASTI.
The ASTI faces another pressing problem: in the past few days there has been a seismic shift in attitudes in the staffrooms. A week ago there was strong support for the union's hardline stance. Most teachers believe, rightly, that they are grossly underpaid, and most believe that their pay has fallen well behind other graduate professions.
But a certain war-weariness is evident. There is, among a huge number of teachers, little stomach for a fresh round of strike days beginning this morning. Their students have already lost over a dozen days. As the exams edge closer, most teachers would rather be in the classroom.
The violent scenes involving student demonstrators, some as young as 13, have not helped the mood. Many teachers will tell you that these protests provide graphic evidence of the difficulties they face in the classroom, but there is also a sense that the ASTI action has unleashed something that is nasty and potentially dangerous.
Teachers want better pay and more recognition, but they also want a peaceful resolution to this bitter dispute - and sooner rather than later.
sflynn@irish-times.ie