When Steve Fitzpatrick took on the role of CWU general secretary, he had to come out fighting as An Post announced the decision to close its SDS subsidiary, writes Emmet Oliver

Veteran trade union official Steve Fitzpatrick has had little time to ease himself into his new role as general secretary of the Communication Worker's Union (CWU).

Last week, as he prepared to succeed Con Scanlon, the management of An Post announced the closure of the An Post subsidiary SDS with the loss of 270 jobs. Mr Fitzpatrick had to hit the airwaves immediately to denounce the decision.

His language was regarded as strident and bellicose by some An Post managers, but it certainly achieved one thing - it announced in very loud terms Mr Fitzpatrick's arrival into the world of industrial relations.

The industrial relations world in the Republic tends to be dominated by two organisations - SIPTU and ICTU - but the CWU, with almost 17,000 members, is certainly not small fry.

In a strange sense, its numerical strength is not that relevant. Having large memberships in key companies such as Eircom, Vodafone and An Post gives it a disproportionate influence in business and Government circles.

Companies such as Eircom and An Post have a direct influence on the infrastructure of the State and that gives CWU muscle of a sort that other unions can only dream of.

Despite this, Mr Fitzpatrick is keen to emphasise that the CWU is not spoiling for a fight and likes to resolve problems on a partnership basis. "We see ourselves as a progressive union," he says.

It's the management of some of the companies that the CWU deals with he accuses of being stuck in the past.

"It's a bit galling when An Post, for example, do what they did on SDS last week. By making such a decision without consultation with the union, they were behaving like dinosaurs and riding roughshod over us."

He says that the most damaging outcome of the SDS announcement is the breakdown in trust.

"We have a major process of negotiation going on down in the Labour Relations Commission about the whole re-structuring of the letters division. When an agreement emerges from that, how are we meant to sell that to our members after what happened over SDS? - it's almost impossible," he says.

His view on the SDS closure is that An Post management failed to implement an earlier agreement with the union that could have saved SDS.

"We agreed to reductions in staff, we agreed to outsource some work, we agreed to a new system of contractor drivers, but the management never gave the plan the proper backing."

Mr Fitzpatrick, a former postman, is an An Post veteran who began his rise through the union ranks in the bitter five-month postal dispute of 1979. He was elected to the national executive council in 1984 and became president of the union in 1993. He was appointed national officer in 1994 and has served as partnership manager with An Post since October 2003.

An Post has plans to reduce the staff by 1,720 so, whatever happens at the company, one suspects that Mr Fitzpatrick is the man the management will have to deal with ultimately. The omens are not necessarily encouraging.

Mr Fitzpatrick is not exactly effusive in his praise for An Post chief executive Donal Curtin.

"Mr Curtin has not managed to conclude any major agreements. He has not managed to implement the company's change programme and he has fallen out with all the unions. He has managed to make all sorts of executive decisions alright, but without consultations with us. I think he needs to go back to kindergarten," is Mr Fitzpatrick's frank assessment.

But he is keen not to "personalise" the issues at An Post and he is happy to sit down with Mr Curtin and his management team.

While on the surface An Post would appear to be the most pressing issue in Mr Fitzpatrick's in tray, there are more messy and complex decisions to be taken at Eircom.

Mr Fitzpatrick's predecessor, Con Scanlon, found himself under fire for holding the position of deputy chairman on the Eircom board while also heading up the CWU as general secretary. Mr Scanlon was on the board of Eircom in his role as chairman of the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT).

This arrangement left Mr Scanlon open to the charge of conflict of interest and he was also attacked by fellow trade unionists for the scale of payments to Eircom board members.

Mr Fitzpatrick is keen to leave all this behind. "There is no doubt the union got damaged. I think, at the end of the day, there were some conflicts of interest."

"I now have to make a decision on whether I take up the chairmanship [of ESOT\]. It is currently vacant. And also we all have to bear in mind that about 50 per cent of the Eircom staff do not even have shares. So I need to take advice on all this. We could employ someone, for instance. There is no certainty, I would say, that it is me who will take up the position," he said.

Mr Fitzpatrick says that there is a bit of hangover from the era of Mr Scanlon that has to be sorted out. "I have to manage all these relationships. That is going to be part of the job."