Sir, - I have enjoyed Fintan O'Toole's contributions to your paper over a long period and agreed with most of them. However, I reject almost every line of his piece on the ASTI industrial dispute (Opinion, March 20th).
It is clear from this article that Mr O'Toole hasn't a clue about trade unionism and the conduct of industrial disputes. In discussing any industrial action, the first consideration is to conduct a dispute with the minimum damage and pain to the workers and the maximum damage and pain to the boss, the shareholders and the company's profits. There is no such thing as a "proper" strike or a "traditional" strike. Every dispute and every industry calls for different methods and many of the best methods have been made illegal by Government legislation.
Trade unionists know and have learned from 1913 that there is no dignity, moral or otherwise, in watching your family suffer. They know the boss doesn't care how much the workers suffer. So the workers have to be "clever". They have to devise new methods of industrial struggle such as "work to rule", a short stoppage for a day or two or even a few hours, which they did so successfully at Dublin Airport. The ESB workers could shut down the whole country, but would do more damage to other workers, hospitals, etc., so they had to think of other methods such as keeping power stations open but stopping construction, development, maintenance or money flow. The majority of strikes in the construction industry have been unofficial because of the legislative tangle that prevents official strikes.
So, Mr O'Toole, ASTI implemented a work to rule. Its members are required to educate the children but there is no rule to make them supervise schools or carry out exam functions. You know this, because you even mention it in your article. You also know that it was the Minister for Education who prevented children from going to school on days when all the teachers were present. All the Minister had to do was pay supervisors and the schools could operate as usual, but if he did so, he would be clearly showing how much money the teachers were losing by doing the supervision free. You never explained this to your readers. Neither did the Education Editor of The Irish Times or any other journalists in either the print or electronic media.
The teachers were highly responsible in ensuring the students got their education. They never thought that a further year on, a Minister for Education would be so stupid and so irresponsible as to leave the issue untouched and unresolved and that the Minister and Government would not be pressured in any way during that year either by the opposition parties or the so-called independent media people.
All of these forces are prepared to defend a shattered PPF at the expense of the Leaving Cert Students. - Yours, etc.,
Tomas MacGiolla, St Laurence's Road, Chapelizod, Dublin 20.