Teachers United Protest outside Anglo Irish Bank

by Peter - Teachers United Tue Feb 10, 2009 09:19 teachersunited09 at gmail dot com

TEACHERS WERE “furious” and “fed up” and may embark on work stoppages, a group of protesting primary and secondary school teachers said yesterday.

Naming themselves as members of a new grassroots teachers’ organisation, Teachers United, the 20 or so people gathered outside the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank in Dublin carrying placards with such slogans as “Bail out education, not the banks” and “We will not pay for bankers’ greed”.

Gerry Murphy, a secondary school teacher in Dublin, said he was protesting because he, like other teachers, was taking a pay cut, while the banks were being subsidised. “We didn’t create this problem,” he said. “We shouldn’t be asked to pay while the banks get our taxes.”

Niall Smith, a primary school teacher in Dublin, said Teachers United was formed in December in response to cuts in education and had members in the three teachers’ unions. “We formed to give a perspective of the rank and file in all the unions.”

Asked why it was felt necessary to form a new group, he said the unions were “wedded to social partnership for so long they can’t see a solution other than social partnership”. “Why should we be made to pay for the sins of the banks? It’s just not on. It’s important at this stage that all workers unite. There is an attempt to pit public sector workers against the private sector.”

Anna O’Loughlin, a primary teacher in Dublin 7, said her take-home pay had fallen by about €200 a month and she didn’t know how she would pay her mortgage.

Taken from Irish Times: 10-02-09

Teachers United Public Forum,
This Thursday 12th Feb, 8pm
Central Hotel, Dublin
All welcome

by Peter Tue Feb 10, 2009 09:54

A few facts:
1. Pension Levy won't save 1 single job in the private sector
2. Its not whinging- its called defending working conditions and pay which teachers and nurses have every right to do.
3. How many teachers will be sacked? In fact over 1,000 jobs are to go in teaching with the cuts
4. Teachers have always paid for their pensions- this is an extra levy on top of what we already pay.

by Angry taxpayer Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:25

Get rid of the tax haven business.
Stop letting people set up shell companies, so they can let a business go bankrupt, while they walk away with millions.
Impose a wage limit on any bank executives of banks that got taxpayers money.
Ban the practice of unreceipted expenses for TD, Senators, and councillors (and create a few jobs by employing people to check on the expenses, unless civic minded people are willing to shop them, they way they encouraged us to shop the people who pretended to have whiplash etc)

These builders and bankers got away with daylight robbery. Tax breaks, building poorly built estates and apartment blocks using a shell company, and then shutting down the company, and setting up another one for the next estate, all the while the banks didn't even pay the full costs of Garda and Army escort for the Securicor vans, and helped many of their customers illegally evade tax while overcharging the rest of us.

If any party expects my vote in the next election, or a yes on Lisbon, they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

by John Corcoran Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:44

The builders and bankers are bankrupt now Angry Taxpayer .

I share your anger about the BA*T*RDS for sure.

But now is now.

The other measures you suggest will bring in a pittance compared to the bills we have to pay.

The question remains:

How do we pay this bill if the Governmentt does not cut spending?

by iq Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:30

"How do we pay this bill if the Government does not cut spending?"

Yeah, it's not as if we have billions of euro worth of gas and oil in the sea off our coasts which our government is giving away for nothing to the likes of Shell.

Anyway, cutting education is harmless. It won't damage society to simply not educate the children to the high standards they get at the moment. It would be much worse if we had to make meaningful cuts to the high salaries of the hard working folks like hospital consultants, or the heads of bodies like the Garda Ombudsman, or FAS; or God forbid, TD's and bankers.

Oh wait that's backwards isn't it?

by Celia S Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:14

Hi

When is the next meeting of the Teachers United Public Forum??

Many thanks

CS

by pat c Sat Feb 21, 2009 21:06

Next General Meeting of Public Service Alliance,

Date:Thursday Feb 26.

Time: 8.15PM.

Venue: Teachers Club, Parnell Sq, Dublin 1.

by Teachers United - Teachers United Sat Feb 21, 2009 21:59 teachersunited09 at gmail dot com

Next meeting of Teachers United is monday 23rd Feb @4.30pm at Anglo Irish Bank, Stephens Green. All welcome!

by Teachers United - Teachers United Mon Feb 23, 2009 18:51 teachersunited09 at gmail dot com

Around 30 teachers from across the three teacher unions took part in the picket outside Anglo Irish Bank today. A number of teachers attempted to stage a sit-in at the bank during the picket.
Pictures and video to follow soon.