Postal strike next week seems inevitable

A STRIKE which will paralyse postal deliveries from midnight next Monday seemed inevitable last night, with both sides digging their heels in and no plans for intervention by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

An Post is asking customers not to post letters in Dublin city or county, Ashbourne, Clonee, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, Drumree, Garistown, Gormanstown, Kilcloone, Stamullen and Rathoath after the latest posting time today. If letters are urgent they should not be posted in any area, but SDS parcel and EMS courier services will not be affected by the dispute, according to the company. Post offices around the country will continue to offer a full service.

The company issued a telephone number, 1-800-57 58 59, which customers can use between 8 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. to get details on their local areas.

The Communications Workers Union yesterday (CWU) said it would not enter talks with An Post management until a letter, stating that disciplinary proceedings were to be taken against Mr Brian Shanny, its branch secretary at the Dublin Mail Centre (DMC), was withdrawn.

The £15 million sorting centre on the Naas Road in Dublin handles more than one million items of post every day. Strike notice was served last week by the union over a number of issues at the centre, but the disciplining of a union activist has complicated the matter.

An Post's spokesman said yesterday that Mr Shanny "had gone against agreed procedures" and that it had not taken the decision to discipline him "lightly". In doing so it showed "the seriousness of the problem the company has had in dealing with the branch secretary at the DMC". The spokesman denied the company planned to dismiss Mr Shanny.

Mr David Begg said when introducing Mr Shanny to the media that in his 11 years as general secretary of the CWU "never has any individual been attacked in such a public way."

Mr Shanny is 52. Since he was 14, he had been working in the postal service and for 36 years he has been a lay official with the union. He lives in Ashbourne, Co Meath, with his wife and two children. Mr Beggs described him as the man An Post seeks to "demonise" in an attempt to deflect attention from serious problems at the DMC. This was "unprecedented", and would have "long term and damaging implications for relations between An Post and the CWU".

"Far from being a radical or troublemaker, he (Mr Shanny) is very much part of the union establishment," Mr Begg said, pointing out there were "no blemishes on his disciplinary record" with the company. Mr Shanny said he found the situation "extremely upsetting" and was "totally devastated by the company's stance".