Plans by the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland to forge an alliance with the other secondary teachers' union have suffered a setback.
A special conference of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, due to be held at the end of the month, has been postponed. The conference was expected to provide an opportunity for some TUI members to push for an alliance with the ASTI.
The news came as the mediator in the dispute, Mr Tom Pomphrett, of the Labour Relations Commission, began fresh peace moves in the dispute. Yesterday, he had informal contacts with the TUI and the Irish National Teachers' Union, but no new formula is expected in the short term. Last night, Mr Pomphrett told The Irish Times: "My reading of the situation is that I have no reason to make a fresh proposal."
The TUI executive voted by a large majority against the special conference and the prospects for an agreed approach between the two unions now looks remote. The conference would have involved the wider TUI membership and the result would have been unpredictable, but a vote in favour of an alliance was possible.
The more hardline members of the ASTI had been looking to the conference on pay to build support in another teaching union. To date, the ASTI campaign has been damaged by its failure to draw support from the TUI and INTO leaderships.
Many in the ASTI believe there is considerable support for its strategy within the TUI, but the prospects of forging an alliance may now be gone.
The TUI last night reaffirmed its commitment to enter the benchmarking pay review body established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. The INTO is also pursuing its demand for extra money through this process. The ASTI has rejected both the PPF and benchmarking.
The teachers' dispute is deadlocked because the Government is not prepared to refund money docked from ASTI members for its November work-to-rule without attaching some conditions. There are indications, however, that the Government may soon be ready to adopt a more flexible approach on this issue.
The TUI, at a meeting yesterday with the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, called on the Government to refund the money without preconditions. Condemning the docking of the money, the TUI said it had been done in an "unjust, selective and insensitive" manner.
At its meeting with the Minister the TUI also warned that it would direct its members not to undertake any exam work normally done by ASTI members if the refund was not made and the ASTI exam ban took effect. In practice, this would make it extremely difficult for the Minister to stage the exams.
Fine Gael's education spokesman, Mr Enda Kenny, yesterday called on Dr Woods to spell out what benchmarking entailed for teachers. "If Minister Woods is looking for a catalyst to restart talks, then he should explain clearly what implications bench marking has for the teaching profession", he said.