IN recent years the CPSU has developed a reputation for being the most militant Civil Service union. This militancy has spilled over into semi state companies to which members have been transferred, such as An Post and Telecom Eireann. It has just called off a 10 week work to rule, involving 10,000 members, over pay and the public service recruitment embargo.
Meanwhile, CPSU members in An Post and the Eircell division of Telecom are in disputes over changes in work practices, which frustrated managements are trying to introduce unilaterally following failure to make progress in months of talks.
Twelve months ago it was the CPSU delegate conference which first signalled that the Programme for Competitiveness and Work might be in trouble, when it reacted angrily to initial pay proposals from the Department of Finance.
Today the Department and the government will be watching refully. If the latest, vastly improved offer is given a similar reception then the prospects for a national agreement will be very grim indeed.
However, the new deal carries the unanimous recommendation of the CPSU executive and, precisely because it was born out of 10 weeks of industrial strife, delegates are bound to give it a goodhearing.
Low pay and the lack of promotional outlets have combined over the years to make clerical grade civil servants deeply alienated.
They will also know that nothing more can be expected without an escalation of the disruptive action undertaken over the past few weeks. And even then they might do no better.
The union's room for manoeuvre will also be seriously curtailed should hostilities be renewed. Its leadership showed considerable skill in using union opposition to the recruitment embargo to undertake industrial action over pay as well. Under the PCW peace clause", no industrial action over pay claims is permitted.
By targeting the Departments of Agriculture and Education for maximum disruptive action, the CPSU showed guile. The threat to the summer exams brought the Government to the negotiating table - and the lifting of action at the Athlone exams centre was the quid pro quo.
If delegates do not accept the new pay proposals they could find the industrial relations climate very different. With the recruitment embargo lifted there is no figleaf to cover resumed industrial action.