‘WE ARE STANDING UP FOR YOUNGER TEACHERS’ – ASTI STRIKE
OVER 200 teachers in the Enniscorthy and Gorey district went out onto the picket line last Thursday in a dispute between ASTI and the government over lower pay rates to recently qualified teachers.
The TUI is not taking part in the dispute, so only schools with large numbers of ASTI members closed, namely Coláiste Bríde Enniscorthy; Enniscorthy CBS; Meanscoil Loch Garman; FCJ Bunclody; and Gorey Community School.
Local ASTI branch secretary James McGovern said that members are very concerned about the disparity in pay rates. ‘We want to see that young teachers coming into the profession are paid properly so the profession will attract the best candidates,’ he said. ‘We taught some of them ourselves, and we want to see them treated properly. Their parents would want the very best for their children naturally.’
He said that they got a lot of support and encouragement on the picket line on Thursday. ‘ There’s no way we want to be out there on the picket line, but there’s no other way it can be done. We tried everything else, and it came to this,’ he commented.
He pointed out that many of those on the picket line are not seeking to gain personally, but a union stands together. ‘We’re standing up for younger teachers, and the future of the profession,’ he stated.
He said the government is digging in its heels, and he isn’t hopeful of a solution being found soon. ‘Our negotiators are working flat out to get one,’ he said.
He added that the separate issue of supervision is also a concern. Teachers are not getting meaningful acknowledgement for extra-curricular work such as coaching teams or directing plays, he said.
He called on sporting organisations to lobby the government on this issue because if teachers stopped coaching teams, it would ‘ have a devastating impact on society.’