Clarification
This morning on Good Morning Ulster the NIPSA representative John Corey was asked about the possibility of the classroom assistants dispute going to talks at the Labour Relations Agency. He expressed some dissatisfaction with the education boards' offer of talks, on the grounds they have insisted they will only "clarify" their existing pay offer. Instead, NIPSA wants to negotiate a new offer.
That got me thinking about when I had heard this debate before. Then I remembered John Major and Albert Reynolds' Downing Street Declaration way back in the 1990s, before the IRA ceasefire. They insisted it was a "take it or leave it" document. But Sinn Fein wanted "clarification". Which eventually they got. And that was just the start of years of negotiations.
Which made me think that one man's "clarification" is another's "negotiation". And when it comes to a dispute having such a dreadful impact on children with special needs, it's hard to understand anyone, be they a union, employer or minister, standing firm on terminology before getting on with the business of dialogue.
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I can’t understand why the education minister doesn’t get involved. Catriona Ruane supported the classroom assistants 4 years ago and told them to fight their case. Well now. Who better to fight their case now? Catriona do something now. Don’t tell me you are like local agencies in Down District who suffer from PTBS (pass the buck syndrome) how do you win respect and votes? Sort out issues like this.
I think it is scandalous that the impact of this strike is being deliberately targeted at the most vulnerable in our society. NIPSA know this. They know that most of their members are in main-stream schools and yet they are not closing. They know that the media will highlight their action simply because it involves special schools.
The minister and her department are an absolute disgrace as well. They know that the parents and public opinion will swing against the unions because of their impact on Special Schools and they appear to be using the children who go to these schools as hostage to negotiation.
Meanwhile the parents and the children affected have to suffer on. Both sides need to ensure that there is a get back to work arrangement and then enter into some form of arbitration service to sort out the deal. It is just not good enough to continue to maintain a strike, from either perspective.
If the mainstream schools were closed, this deal would have been sorted long ago.
I always thought that in a civilised society, I have the right to strike and to my human rights, but I do not have the right to demand mine at the expense of someone else's.
GET BACK TO WORK AND GET THE MINISTER TO MAKE A DECISION - SHE CAN'T GO ON DITHERING AND SPEWING OUT PLATITUDES. SHE IS THE EMPLOYER - OR MAYBE SHE JUST DOESN'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE A MINISTER.
In the rest of the UK, people would be calling for the Minister's head. And they would be right!