Possible Strike Action

newfrontier

In view of the fact the government will breach the Croke Park Agreement what is the best possible solution. Nobody wants or can afford strike action but what options are available to us. If the government goes ahead with the wage cuts as planned. I feel that this situation will develop rather quickly but has anybody ideas on how to avoid possible strike action yet get the message across ..enough is enough..

golden virginia

Going on the signals -yes it looks like the gov may renage - I suppose the way it is now is that there is an awful lot of teachers in the system only have CID's and are not permanent.

It makes for any type of action difficult. The rot started a few years ago when unions began preaching that CID's were as good as being permanent.

it means at times like these that a large body of teachers are not permanent ,making it difficult for profession of teaching to defend itself against these type of cuts.

Why did we bother getting a good leaving cert and the expense of going to college for five years?

Okay so baby brain here. Im on maternity leave at the moment and not in the staff room for as many chats obviously! What is going on? I saw a whisper on the Asti website about action over the allowances. Is it thought that an all out pay cut is coming soon?

solerina

Deleted User wrote: »

Okay so baby brain here. Im on maternity leave at the moment and not in the staff room for as many chats obviously! What is going on? I saw a whisper on the Asti website about action over the allowances. Is it thought that an all out pay cut is coming soon?

all allowances will be cut by 5% this year and again next year and 10% in 2013 (Degree, H.Dip, S&S, posts, etc).

Benicetomonty

Which is a pay-cut in my understanding as the allowances are pensionable. TUI have already proposed a ballot for members on pulling out of Croke Park if cuts go ahead, and you have to expect ASTI to follow suit.

doc_17

All out strike action is worthless unless teachers are prepared to walk out and not walk back in again until whatever demands they seek are conceded. If teachers strike for a day here and there all it gets is bad pr and nothing done. Most teachers will then probably come in in the evenings to make time up for exam classes!

I honestly feel that if we wanted to send a very direct message strike action would not do it. It rubs people up the wrong way.

What I would advocate for is a complete withdrawal of assistance for all extra-curricular activites first. No football, hurling, soccer, musicals and whatever else. I would hope that would be more likely to get parents and the wider community onside quicker than strike action.

Toto Wolfcastle

The problem with cutting extra curricular activities is that a lot the people who actually provide them are not willing to give them up. In the last school I was in the sports coaches did absolutely everything they could to make sure that the students could continue with them even when there was difficult to get cover for matches that were on during school time.

In the school I'm in now a lot of the extra curricular activities are run by coaches from outside the teaching staff. This probably isn't the norm though.

doc_17

Yeah I know it wouldn't be easy to get people to give up things they love doing but it's the other stuff such as fundraising, voluntary cover for teachers who are away with sports teams, being the ICT coordinator while not having a post etc.....

I'm sure people wouldn't mind giving these up!

KrustyBurger

doc_17 wrote: »

All out strike action is worthless unless teachers are prepared to walk out and not walk back in again until whatever demands they seek are conceded. If teachers strike for a day here and there all it gets is bad pr and nothing done. Most teachers will then probably come in in the evenings to make time up for exam classes!

I honestly feel that if we wanted to send a very direct message strike action would not do it. It rubs people up the wrong way.

What I would advocate for is a complete withdrawal of assistance for all extra-curricular activites first. No football, hurling, soccer, musicals and whatever else. I would hope that would be more likely to get parents and the wider community onside quicker than strike action.

This will have zero effect imho. The Government don't care a whit whether a musical goes ahead or not. The parents have their own busy lives to lead and won't care either as long as their children are in school. The students will care obviously but are powerless to have an impact.

A strike day here or there is madness, it doesn't work.

If the gov take our allowances then simply revert back to the way things were before Croke Park re meetings, 33 hours etc.