Ireland faces likely postal strike
Ireland faced a probable strike Wednesday at An Post, the national postal service, because of a showdown between union leaders and managers over the imminent closure of its troubled package-delivery unit, SDS.
The Communications Workers Union gave the company’s management a noon (1200GMT) ultimatum to reinstate 68 employees, who were suspended Monday after refusing to clear a backlog of packages from SDS’s closing headquarters in southwest Dublin.
An Post, which plans to close SDS by the end of the month, said it would not reinstate the 68 unless they do their jobs as ordered. The workers had refused to transfer packages to an An Post depot in Portlaoise, west of Dublin, where the company plans to handle package deliveries from now on.
An Post has suffered declining service standards and growing labor unrest in recent years, including a two-week strike last year that brought deliveries nationwide to a halt.
The company, although state-owned, receives no government subsidy. It reported 2003 losses of EUR46 million (USD56 million) and is expected soon to report heavier 2004 losses, but union chiefs have fought efforts to cut staff and introduce greater automation.
