THREE TEACHERS UNIONS have said they will ballot for industrial in the wake of the rejection of a new public sector pay deal earlier this week.
The executives of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), and the country’s largest teacher union, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) have decided to ballot members for action up to and including strike.
The decision came following a meeting of the three executives in Dublin today with each union to conduct their own ballot among members starting next month.
In a joint statement the unions said that industrial action will be triggered in the event that the government imposes unilateral pay cuts through legislation as has been suggested.
“Teachers have already taken a 14 per cent reduction in pay and have delivered additional work and substantial savings under the Croke Park Agreement,” Pat King, the general secretary of ASTI, said today.
“Young teachers, many of whom find themselves in precarious employment situations, have had inferior terms and conditions imposed on them in a most inequitable manner.”
INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said any move to impose pay cuts will be “strongly resisted up to and including strike action” while TUI general secretary John MacGabhann said that the unions would take “whatever industrial action is necessary.”
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