A former postman who began his rise through trade union ranks during the bitter postal dispute of 1979 will take over the top job in the Communications Workers' Union (CWU).

The CWU, which represents workers in Eircom and An Post among others, announced yesterday that it had appointed Mr Steve Fitzpatrick as general secretary of the organisation. He will succeed Mr Con Scanlon, who is stepping down because of his commitments to the Eircom employee share option trust (ESOT).

A statement said the selection committee of the union's national executive council had unanimously recommended Mr Fitzpatrick for the job. The union's council, in turn, endorsed this.

Mr Fitzpatrick (47) is from Dublin and began his career as a postman in the Crumlin district office, on the capital's southside. He became a union representative during the long postal strike in 1979.

He was elected to the national executive council in 1984 and became president of the union in 1993. Mr Fitzpatrick was appointed national officer in 1994 and has served as partnership manager with An Post since October 2003.

The CWU has 20,000 members in companies such as Eircom, Vodafone and the State-owned postal service, An Post. One of Mr Fitzpatrick's main initial concerns is likely to be his old employer, An Post, which is going through restructuring after making losses of €47.5 million in 2002.

The outgoing general secretary, Mr Scanlon, welcomed Mr Fitzpatrick's appointment last night.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who lives in Blessington, Co Wicklow, is married to Carol. They have two children, Glen and Adam.