Union leaders at An Post will decide today whether to further disrupt Christmas mail deliveries following yesterday's 24-hour strike by postal workers.
Around 8,000 postal staff marched through Dublin yesterday in what gardaí said was the biggest demonstration in the capital since the anti-war rallies last year.
Members of the Communications Workers' Union, which organised the protest, also staged the 24-hour strike that caused the cancellation of all mail deliveries yesterday.
The 93 post offices operated directly by An Post in cities and main towns were closed, but the State's 1,400 sub-post offices were unaffected.
An Post says the stoppage will cause some knock-on delays in mail deliveries, but it will be today before the extent of them becomes clear. Over-the-counter social welfare payments should be back to normal by this afternoon.
The union said the strike action was in response to the company's refusal to pay increases due under the Sustaining Progress partnership agreement since November last year. It is also seeking "an open and honest public debate" on the future of the postal service.
It was criticised yesterday, however, for not pursuing its pay claim under procedures set out in Sustaining Progress.
An Post has pleaded inability to pay the increases due under the agreement since November 2003. It would have lost more than €20 million this year had staff been given the pay rises. Instead, it is set to break even.
The CWU's national executive meets today to consider escalating the dispute next week. The union's general secretary, Mr Steve Fitzpatrick, said members' "blood will be up" following the unexpectedly large turnout at yesterday's demonstration. He said the key to avoiding further disruption before Christmas was a positive response to the union's concerns from the Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey.
It did not have to contain specific commitments, but the union at least required a meeting with the Minister. Otherwise further disruption to Christmas mail deliveries was inevitable, he said.
Mr Dempsey said last night he would be inviting both the union and the An Post board to meet him in the coming week.
The CWU has so far not invoked the procedures in Sustaining Progress which provide for independent arbitration in cases where companies plead inability to pay increases. Mr Fitzpatrick claimed the union had not used the procedures to date because it could not trust the company to abide by them.
A spokesman for An Post, however, said the union's failure to use its options under Sustaining Progress meant yesterday's stoppage was "entirely unofficial" and "unjustified".
"We have no dispute with the union on any issue that would justify its approach. If we did we would be at the Labour Relations Commission.," he said.
