TUI members vote to accept Haddington Road Agreement
The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has voted to accept the Haddington Road Agreement by a majority of 54% to 46%, on a turnout of 65%.
The ballot result follows the earlier rejection of the agreement by another secondary teachers' union, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI),
The ASTI which represents 17,000 teachers, voted 63% against the pay deal and threatened a strike.
However this evening TUI General secretary John MacGabhann said his members voted with strong reluctance to accept “the lesser of two evils”.
Gerard Craughwell, TUI president, added that the trust of teachers and lecturers in Government has been severely undermined.
“Notwithstanding the union’s acceptance of the agreement there is a huge and growing sense of anger and frustration amongst teachers and lecturers at the fact that, as well as being targeted for successive pay cuts, they are being increasingly burdened with additional bureaucratic work that does nothing to enhance the quality of teaching and lecturing,” he said.
“It should not be inferred that TUI’s acceptance of Haddington Road represents an acceptance of the austerity agenda. It does not.”
Gardaí, nurses and civil servants have all previously accepted the Haddington Road Agreement.
The deal, the successor to Croke Park, will see public sector pay cuts of €300m this year and €1bn over three years.
The Government had warned that it will impose unilateral pay cuts if unions do not support it.
