Yeah thats the point of them to ensure that the teachers have the relevant qualifications. I can speak English doesn’t mean I can teach it. God forbid someone bluffs their way into the job and is teaching children
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So schools are opening on Thursday, I assume there’ll be lots of individual closures over the next while but this is the right call for me all things considered.
Bit of a blow for a few lads here though who’ll need to engage In whataboutery rather than the reality 
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Typical teachers giving us nothing to whine about them whining about something
Schools set to reopen as normal on Thursday. The teacher haters on here will be seething at this news
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Therein lies the problem .
Norma has put the ASTI back in their box
They should leave it up to the principal’s really.If they’ve enough teachers to teach then plough on.If not then that class may need to have a few days off.Rather than closing a whole school.
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Each to their own but personally I’ll be paying my union fees until the day I retire. IMO it’s important for the common man and woman to have someone fighting on their behalf.
For years and years I was paying the monthly union fees, no real benefit derived from it, but then a few years back an issue occurred at my then work place which affected a good few of us. It could have got very messy and stressful but the union stepped in and sorted it out very quickly. Will always be grateful for their input and so will always support a union. The then workplace manager was an absolutely nasty prick, a real bastard who despised unions and union representation, but the union had him for toast when it came to the crunch.
In saying that, the salaries of some of the union big wigs is absolutely obscene.
Teaching really seems to have a split, especially in secondary teaching. I’d know a few who pulled out of the ASTI as they became totally disillusioned with them. A common accusation has been that younger teachers have been left behind while the ASTI has pandered to the elder, more financially comfortable cohort. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know.
The best union in the country seems to be the NBRU. Absolutely militant, they’ll down tools until they get what they want which they inevitably seem to do!
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Each to their own indeed, and I paid into INTO for a few years,
Unions probably do great work on a micro level but overall they’re self serving IMO, generally anytime I ever heard of unions on the news I’d have been spitting at the television, rarely is the public good considered. I want nothing to do with it, I don’t agree with INTO on certain issues anyway.
I’ll take my chances if I ever need representation.
My uncle is a big shot in SIPTU, a sound man
This is the common sense approach that likely won’t have a chance to get off the ground. You can’t take a national level decision which makes sense for every school. Principals probably won’t have a clue what teachers are available until 8am Thursday morning
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Do you break the picket line if there is a strike? Is that not particularly awkward?
I’m all for unions but the ASTI as you say are a joke of an organization and give all other unions a bad name
Yeah, it’s on the micro level unions really earn their corn. Have seen first hand how essential it is to have someone to turn to on the off chance an issue crops up.
Union fees are like health insurance, you’re paying it every month and wondering what’s the point but it’s only when you need it you appreciate it.
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We’re not coal miners
I’m not embarrassed to tell anybody that I’m not in the union, I’d probably get to stay at home I suppose, win/win.
It’d actually be hilarious, be gas if they started shouting ‘scab, scab’ for the laugh.
The more I think about it, sounds great 
The schools opening will not sit well with a few lads on here.
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Ah fair enough, I just assumed you’d have to go in but I suppose who could/would check to see if you were there!
You could nip in at 10am when they’d all left the picket line to head to Newry.
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Surely the opening of schools by Tony is the very same as him saying OIUTF/ it’s all a cod/Omicron is only a runny nose. There is no other explanation. It’s not like he ever erred on the opposite side to caution before. It’s gas watching Twitter tie themselves up in knots over it. Changing the isolation rules will be the final signal to chaarge but he just won’t say it for some reason.
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Problem with unions is numbers have dwindled so the tail is wagging the dog … a bunch of heads threaten to leave and the union does anything to fight their case where once they would have been told to fcuk off …
I have seen on micro levels union reps stepping in for lads and getting them second chances and who have since gone on to flourish …
In fairness to them it’s outrageous to ask a bus driver to drive a bus …
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