Sir, - The ASTI should take a bow. How clever it is. What better way to get at a company that will not co-operate with unionisation than to attack its altruism?
This is a very soft option: no discomfort necessary, extra work avoided, school work continues, no strike, no loss of income. The only people to suffer are students, and our national image is dented.
The Young Scientists Exhibition is something to be proud of as it shows us and the world how well educated and perceptive our young people are. Each year we marvel at their achievements, their ideas, and the diligence with which they pursue them.
For a union to vent its spleen on such a soft and unprotected target is reprehensible. All they can achieve is the wounding or even the death of the event. While I support a worker's right to be represented by a union, what appals me is the mind-set that hatched this dastardly plan.
Has teacher stress reached such severe levels that there is a loss of touch with reality? Surely not. Our educators must pressurise their union to step back from this ludicrous decision. - Yours, etc., Dr David O'Neill,
Dispensary House,
Ardee,
Co Louth.