Joe O’Toole has been caretaker at Coláiste Iognaid for 33 years, and last Friday was the first occasion he took strike action to improve his own lot.

Eight years ago, Joe refused to open the doors of The Jes on Sea Road in the city. This was to show solidarity with striking teachers, despite being instructed to do so, and despite being docked pay for his refusal to cross the picket.

“I want teachers to remember that,” said Joe on the picket line outside the secondary school gates last Friday, as part of trade union Fórsa’s indefinite strike action.

Picketing outside schools across Galway, was an escalation of caretakers’ and school secretaries’ efforts to end their exclusion from access to a public service pension and terms of employment.

“I’m probably the longest person working in the school. I just feel enough is enough,” Joe told the Tribune.

“We feel like second-class citizens in our schools,” added the native of St Joseph’s Avenue, just around the corner from the school.

Some County Galway schools, such as Clonfert College in Ballinasloe, reduced the number of students attending on strike days this week, to ensure health, safety and wellbeing of students and teachers.

The Board of Management of Clonfert College asked non-exam years to stay home, because the absence of key workers “placed significant strain on the day-to-day running of the school”.

In a statement on social media, Clonfert College said secretaries and caretakers were “the heartbeat of our school community” and their contribution was “immeasurable”.

Fórsa said that despite working in the same schools, under the same boards of management, on the same departmental payroll as teachers and SNAs, caretakers and secretaries were treated as “second-class” staff when it comes to pensions.

They were also denied key entitlements, such as occupational sick pay and bereavement leave.

“A calculated policy decision to maintain inequality, regardless of the cost to those affected. This policy has locked out several generations of school staff from secure income in retirement,” said Fórsa national secretary Andy Pike.

Some 98% of Fórsa members voted for strike, as a last resort.

“These are everyday workers — secretaries and caretakers — who don’t want to go on strike. We’re out for the long haul. The Government haven’t spoken to Fórsa yet.

“We are outside picketing today, some of us outside our schools, some of us in Athlone (where a regional picket was taking place). It’s time we took a stance,” said Jes caretaker Joe O’Toole, a former Galway United player.

Pictured: Joe O’Toole, who has been caretaker at Coláiste Iognáid in the city for more than three decades, protesting outside the school.