Primary teachers have threatened to pull out of the national pay agreement unless the Government takes immediate action to compensate workers for rising inflation.
Their union, the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), has said it was no exaggeration to suggest that "the whole fabric of Irish industrial relations" would unravel if inflation was not dealt with.
It said its members should not "take the hit for inadequate or flawed Government inflation tactics".
Workers were not getting the "full value" of what was agreed under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).
The INTO is one of the biggest unions in the State and its outgoing general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, is currently vice-president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
Senator O'Toole said: "The Government should learn from the French experience as to what happens when the representatives of workers are not heeded."
He said teachers and other workers would not "sit around and wait on this one".
He added: "Teachers, like hundreds of thousands of workers, voted earlier this year to accept the pay terms of PPF but the value of the pay terms has been, and continues to be, eroded every month by galloping inflation.
"The value of the increase our members voted for is not what they are getting.
"With inflation running at more than 6 per cent, our members are only getting 94p to the pound," he said.
The pressure from teacher unions over the inflation spiral has increased in recent weeks, with the Teachers Union of Ireland also voicing concerns.
The other union, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, is no longer a member of ICTU and rejected the PPF months ago.
In relation to the return from the PPF for teachers, Senator O'Toole said: "This is not acceptable to us and is in fact in breach of the requirement in the PPF that the Government conduct fiscal policy over the programme period in a fashion which is consistent with economic stability and in particular low inflation.
"As the cost of fundamental and necessary goods continues to escalate, items like mortgage payments, filling the car with petrol to go to work and shopping for the basic weekly groceries have become weekly nightmares for teachers and many people on fixed incomes," he said.
The INTO is hoping to get more pay for teachers through the benchmarking body set up under the terms of the PPF. This body attempts to reward those who introduce change in the public service.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said recently pay awards made by the body could be speeded up in certain cases.
The INTO has offered its strategy as an alternative to that of the ASTI, which is planning industrial action involving schools around the State.
The ASTI is currently awaiting the findings of a Government-appointed arbitrator who is considering its 30 per cent pay claim.