AN INCREASING disconnect is emerging between the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland and thousands of second-level teachers in staffrooms countrywide, the union’s general secretary Pat King acknowledged yesterday.
His admission – made during a keynote address to the union conference – comes after only 38 per cent of the union’s 18,000 members voted in the February ballot on the Croke Park agreement.
Mr King said attendance at branch meetings had fallen away dramatically. Typically, a Dublin branch with over 800 members would struggle to muster a quorum, he said.
He told delegates: “The problem of falling branch attendances has been with us for many years. It is not a new problem but in recent times it has become critical. Some branches are barely functioning; some find it impossible to appoint branch officers; some are required to duplicate branch officerships. We have to be honest and truthful about this.”
Mr King said he sensed the problem was no longer just that of members staying away from meetings.
“I sense that there is an increasing disconnect, with fewer members having a sense of identity with the ASTI, with fewer possessing a sense of loyalty to the ASTI, fewer reading ASTI literature, fewer bothering to vote in what are crucial ballots on conditions of work.”
Mr King took over as general secretary last year. The union still bears some of the scars from its industrial action in closing schools almost a decade ago. This led to a bitter internal feud within the union.
Since his appointment, Mr King has been attempting to overhaul the union’s power structures. In recent years, the union has struggled in particular to engage with younger teachers.
Yesterday, he told delegates: “We need to look at our rules and structures; we need to examine how we communicate with members; we must increase levels of participation and engagement; and we must examine the role and operation of our branch structure.”
He also said the role of retired members – who enjoy full voting rights at the union’s annual conference – must be reviewed. “What is clear is that we cannot afford to let matters drift anymore,” he said.
“This period is the ideal time,” he said, “to step back, ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our purpose; amend and create structures and an organisation that are fit for purpose; and set up a communications structure that will leave us confident that we, in the leadership, or we at annual congress or on the central executive accurately reflect what members really want and what members are really saying.”
Mr King also defended his role in the negotiations that led to the Croke Park agreement on modernisation in the public service.
“Trust us [in the leadership] when we said that the Croke Park outcome was the best anyone could get in the current climate; we absolutely believed that.
“And the members voted to accept Croke Park. I have no doubt every ‘Yes’ vote was a reluctant ‘Yes’ vote. But the members made a choice.
“The members have changed their minds on Croke Park since this time last year. To change your mind, to alter your position, is a very intelligent thing to do when you have new information and when the context has changed and, my word, has the context changed since last May.”
On the threat of further education cuts, he said: “There is no fat or waste in the education service. Schools are run on a shoestring and overall investment in education in Ireland has always been pathetic – well below the OECD average.”
He also warned the 14 per cent pay cut for new teachers would lead to a second tier of low-paid and demoralised teachers.
Mr King promised his union would not stop asking for greater investment in education.
“We will not stop demanding school resources for disadvantaged children and we will not stop asking for more teachers in order to give children a better chance in life. That is our responsibility, that is our role, that is the dynamic in which we operate.”
On wider issues, Mr King said there was a concerted push by powerful interests to target the trade union movement.
“There is a very consistent line put forward by these groups and their representatives that trade unions are nothing more than a ‘vested’ interest, that trade unions’ day is done, that they are from another age So now we know, it was all our fault.
“The problem is that if it’s repeated often enough, if it’s restated time and time again on the ‘Pat Kenny Show’ or the Joe Duffy entertainment hour, it must be true.”