Great FEMPI letter in IT today from Eddie Conlon (former TUI hon sec)

deiseindublin

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/unions-and-financial-emergency-law-1.2649723

Well worth a read.

mirrorwall14

Spotted this earlier, excellent

deiseindublin

Basically we all have to get on to our TDs before FEMPI vote, be a thorn in their sides!

TheDriver

deiseindublin wrote: »

Basically we all have to get on to our TDs before FEMPI vote, be a thorn in their sides!

So, heres a draft if anyone wants to send to their TD:

Dear Sir,
Congratulations on your recent election to Dail Eireann, as a constituent of XXXX, I am delighted that you are representing us and was impressed by your literature and the people who called to my door on your behalf.
I am a public servant, working as a teacher. As you are aware, we have taken a large number of cuts over the years along with all corners of society in Ireland. We are currently voting on an agreement called the Landsdowne Rd agreement which we already rejected last year. All the promises from the previous agreement (Haddington Rd) have been taken away and used as a bullying mechanism to force us to sign up to this agreement but who will trust a government that has now broken their promises. If we don’t agree to this agreement, more punitive years are ahead of us using the FEMPI legislation as a device to force further hardship. However in recent times, we keep hearing about a recovering economy, a generous budget and talks about fiscal space. Hence when the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reformpresents his report at the end of June to the Oireachtas on his review of FEMPI legislation, I hope that the opposition parties will be able to scrutinise it and conclude that we no longer are in a financial emergency and this legislation has no place in our society to bully and cajole teachers and other public servants who engage in a democratic process and seek to negotiate a collective agreement that will stop the profession going further into decline through low morale, low pay and unattractiveness to new bright graduates.
On a side note, I also hope your party can question why a General Secretary of a Department can publish industrial relations material on the front page of a main government website with the sole purpose of scaring teachers into a certain way of voting. Surely this is not how industrial relations matters can be addressed in this country.
I wish you the best in your career as a TD in the current Dail.
Yours Sincerely,

political analyst

From Mr Conlon's letter:

The opposition of TUI members is driven by opposition to the treatment of new entrants and unsustainable workloads that see lecturers in Institutes of Technology teach 20 hours per week. This is far in excess of international norms, is leading to high levels of stress and is injurious of the good intentions of lecturers towards their students. It is not possible to provide a high-quality education with such teaching loads.

But, surely, it's worse for secondary teachers, i.e. pointless meetings in the extra hours. At least the lecturers are getting to do the work they usually do in the extra hours.

evolving_doors

political analyst wrote: »

From Mr Conlon's letter:


But, surely, it's worse for secondary teachers, i.e. pointless meetings in the extra hours. At least the lecturers are getting to do the work they usually do in the extra hours.

As far as I'm aware the lecturers have to teach extra hours.... And all the work load that comes with extra modules etc.

Darwin

@political analyst as alluded to by Gebgbegb, the 2 flex hours hides a lot of additional hours. My wife is a teacher and I'm a lecturer, so I'm in a good position to compare croke park hours and flex hours. The additional 2 flex hours I have to teach (over 30 weeks) results in me getting 1 new module (@3 hours/week) over 20 weeks. Each new teaching hour requires on average an additional 3 hours between preparation, marking assessments and examinations and dealing with student queries etc. In total that gives me a max of 180 additional hours every year. So you can see how 2 additional hours can be a very big deal.