The anger among teachers about pay is finding a new voice in Teachers United, an organisation which plans to unite teachers in all three teacher unions.
Even as delegates at the INTO congress were approving a motion on the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness, Teachers United was organising a meeting for disaffected delegates. A spokeswoman, Ms Crea Ryder, said Teachers United evolved from the anti-partnership campaign. She claimed members of the executive of the TUI and the ASTI (but not the INTO executive) belonged to Teachers United.
Ms Ryder said the majority in the three teacher unions voted to reject the PPF.
"We feel it's very important to have a rank-and-file group across the three unions. The PPF deal was very poor . . . There are no restraints on profits earned by big businesses but there are restraints put on what PAYE workers can earn," says Ms Ryder, who is an INTO delegate. The organisation believes the three unions should be uniting in support of the ASTI's 30 per cent pay claim.
Teachers United will be highlighting the need for more union democracy and the need for more funding for education. Ms Ryder said the third part of the PPF was already performance-related. "Our central executive committee is saying that the demands have already been met for the 4 per cent we are due but it opens up the door . . . the Government wants to bring performance-related pay in across the public service sector," she said.
This is an "extremely worrying development", according to a statement by Teachers United, and, in the longer term, may pave the way for school-based and individually-based assessment of teachers. "The common basic pay scales must be defended. We should reject the `Thatcherisation' of Irish education . . ." she said.
The bench-marking structure also presents a serious threat to teachers' conditions of service, according to Teachers United.