Many postal workers were shocked that the collection and delivery deal was passed by a 2–1 majority. Prior to the vote the dominant mood in the Dublin, Cork and other urban areas was against the deal.

When the deal was brokered by the LRC the leadership of the CWU quickly launched a ballot. This happened even though a majority of their members had still not read or been informed of the details of the deal or were only given a one-sided recommendation in favour of the agreement from the union’s leadership. Many staff will have therefore voted in favour of the agreement without the benefit of a debate, and some will have voted yes in the belief that there was no other alternative.

Many CWU members are angry that the union’s leading officials recommended a “yes” vote and also at how they rushed the ballot, deliberately keeping a majority of the members in the dark about the many negatives aspects of the deal.

At a consultative meeting in Dublin, local union reps lambasted union officials for accepting the agreement and outlined how this was a rotten deal. No further meetings were held in Dublin!

A lot of issues relating to staff numbers, routes and productivity pay increases still remain unresolved and have to be negotiated. Therefore CWU collection and delivery staff must keep a close watch on their union officials to ensure that nothing is agreed to that will undermine their wages and conditions even further.

None of the difficulties facing the workforce at An Post, or the future of our public postal service have been resolved. The cuts in job numbers and take home pay inherent in this deal will only serve to reinforce the strategy of making the staff pay for the financial problems of the company. This agenda will only get more intense as An Post faces more competition and a full liberalised market by 2009.

The leadership of the CWU avoided a battle with An Post management and the government. They could have mobilised the overwhelming majority of CWU members in a campaign of industrial action to force the company and the government to back down. Instead they have allowed An Post management the opportunity to implement their agenda to cut the wages and conditions of staff. The CWU leaders have also refused to take on the government in a campaign to get a public subsidy for An Post to cover its social obligation.

CWU members in An Post have shown a willingness over the last 18 months to engage in militant struggle against the company in order to defend wages, jobs and working conditions. They have been badly let down by their leaders. The Socialist Party believes it is necessary for CWU activists to get organised. If a campaigning activists group had existed during the latest ballot, it could have supplied the 4,500 voting members with leaflets and material telling them the truth about the LRC deal. Members of the group could have spoken at every consultative meeting challenging the “line” of the NEC and it is possible that the deal could have been defeated. An important lesson from these events is that this type of campaigning group needs to be built in the CWU in order to challenge the current leadership.

Dublin postal worker Eamonn McNally spoke to the Socialist

Q: Now that the collection and delivery deal has been passed, what’s the mood amongst the Dublin collection and delivery staff?

A: The members are disillusioned with what went on throughout the process. They think that the leadership at head office level failed them and sold a bad deal. There is a mood of opposition in the branch against the ongoing change and the worsening of the members’ working conditions. The members want to protect their take home pay.

Q: Why do you think the deal was passed?

A: There was a lack of consultation about the document. A lot of the members did not know the details of what is in it. There was a fair bit of scaremongering by the head office reps. The officials used phrases like “they had gone as far as they possibly could”. They claimed that they wouldn’t have the emotional aspect of the pensioners not being paid on the union’s side as these were being guaranteed payment.

The whole thing was rushed. Some people were getting their ballot papers with recommendations to accept, but no actual detail of what was in the deal. Most of the members hadn’t had a chance to read the deal and apart from in Dublin where the deal was strongly opposed, there were very few consultation meetings.

Q: What do you think about the idea of CWU activists getting organised?

A: Our branch is looking to fight back against the leadership in head office and the role they played in accepting this deal. The branch should demand negotiating rights when the details are being discussed so as we know what’s going on and have power to make decisions. I feel that members who are angry about what has happened should get together and organise to change the union.

Connex, the firm that runs the LUAS, is notorious worldwide for being a vicious anti-worker and anti-union employer, as we found out when we interviewed a group of Luas Drivers (LDs), Connex seems to be upholding both its own international tradition and the traditions of the previous operator of trams in Dublin - William Martin Murphy - the vicious anti-union employer who provoked the 1913 lockout.

Q: What’s it like working for Connex?

A: We are forced to drive long days, with inadequate breaks and erratic shift patterns, with no overtime. You’re constantly anxious when you’re driving, because you know that one mistake and you can be sacked. You have to drive very close to the speed limit and on the trip from Tallaght to Connolly station, there are well over 60 speed restriction changes. We know everyday when we go to work, we might not have a job at the end of it. The lads are at breaking point - some lads are heading for breakdowns, they’re suffering from stress, fatigue, depression.

Our main concern is the driving time. I was driving today falling asleep - and that happens regularly, because of the hours we have to work. You can start in the morning with a four hour shift, be late for your break because of faults in the system, miss most of your break, and then have to go out again for another four hours and 15 minutes.

Faults in the system can slow you down, and once you’ve slowed down, you just get slower and slower because more and more people are waiting to get on at each stop. Then you don’t even get a one minute breather at the end of the line, you have to turn right around again. Then you will be late in for your break, which means you sometimes have to make the choice whether you go to the toilet or have a cup of tea!

Q: You are all members of SIPTU, has that helped?

A: The company puts fear and intimidation into the lads. Over 12 people have been sacked. Others have left because they are given massive warning periods, and they just can’t face the stress. Connex even managed to intimidate our Health and Safety Officer into resigning. Connex were thrown out of South Central London, because the trams were going out filthy, and there was bullying and harassment from senior management. We have the same management as in England.
SIPTU, our union, has been poor. They signed us up for a no-strike deal, before we even arrived. They normally don’t want to know about it when we complain about something. Even when they do complain, the company doesn’t even listen, because of the no-strike clause.

Q: A report came out which identified serious flaws and said urgent repair work was needed.

A: We’ve been saying to Connex from day one that there’s a problem with the infrastructure. For example, on curve 16 between the Red Cow and Kingswood, the trams rock from side to side. According to the newspapers, the material they’ve used for the blocks isn’t mixed properly. We have to ask the question, why we are still going at line speed if the track has failed on those curves.

The government spent €700 million, but the infrastructure’s failing - it can’t go the way it’s been designed - it should be a serious embarrassment to the government, because basically it’s a rushed job. The communication system hasn’t worked since day one, instead we have to use two way radios, and sometimes you have blackspots and the lads are forced to use their mobile phones, or else get out and use the emergency telephone at the stops.