MOOD ON THE FLOOR:THE THEME of the TUI conference this year is "Stand up for Education" – and stand up they did.
Vice-president Bernie Ruane called on delegates to “Stand up! Stand up!” because the TUI’s not sitting down with anyone.
Not the Government, not Ictu, and definitely not Anglo.
Not the INTO and not any other union that chooses to accept the Croke Park deal.
General secretary Peter MacMenamin told delegates: “We cannot afford the luxury of internal battles and of mistaking who the enemy is. The enemy in this case is the Government.”
Delegates took another view, however, and over the course of the afternoon Ictu emerged from the long grass as the real bad guy. Speaker after speaker denounced Congress as arrogant, untrustworthy, and set to “utterly and finally destroy the trade union movement in Ireland”.
Attention then switched to a more heinous opponent.
“We need to focus on Anglo Irish Bank in order to unite workers and bring the public with us. We need to start getting the public behind us. We can get hundreds of thousands out on to the street if we can identify the enemy,” said one Dublin delegate.
Ruane amplified the war cry, calling for an Easter Rising II. “We are here during our Easter holidays to ensure that this agreement has no part to play in our future. Today is the day of the Easter rising for TUI. Strike a blow for yourself, your children and the unborn. This agreement is not what Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone died for. This is educational treason.”
A special motion on picket duty drew more delegates to their feet.
Talk of hour-long pickets and shopping trips to Newry “made a mockery of the last strike action”, said one Cork delegate.
“It was embarrassing for us all as trade unionists and the media made a total meal of it. What should have been a day of action that galvanised us became a laughing stock.”
In future pickets, delegates agreed, it was incumbent on union members to stand up for longer than one hour. They called on all the teaching unions to pull together on picket strategy.
An Easter pantomime saw Brian Cowen cast as Judas starring alongside Bertie Ahern as Oliver Twist'sFagin.
However, the real show is planned for today when Dublin candidate Mary Ryan is seeking to assemble a walk-out on new Minister Mary Coughlan.
Today is a day for comfortable shoes.
