THE union official at the centre of Monday's threatened strike at the Dublin Mail Centre (DMC) will be identified today at a press conference by the Communication Workers' Union.
The individual, who is branch secretary of the CWU at the mail centre, has been threatened with dismissal by An Post.
The union has refused to resume talks with the company over the threatened strike until the dismissal threat is withdrawn. The £15 million centre on the Naas Road handles over one million items of mail per day.
Strike notice was served by the CWU last week over a number of long running issues at the DMC, but has been complicated by the company's threat to dismiss the union member.
The CWU claims the dismissal threat is "an attempt by An Post to divert attention from its mismanagement of the DMC both from an operational point of view and from an industrial relations standpoint".
The CWU general secretary, Mr David Begg, said the company is seeking to "demonise" the individual who has an on blemished disciplinary record". A spokesman for An Post denied it is trying to demonise the union member. He said the CWU was notified by An Post that the company found it impossible to deal with the member, but would continue to deal with the union.
He claimed the individual "has continued to show total disregard for agreed union management procedures. His actions included organising unofficial disputes and unauthorised work stoppages which have resulted in delays in the postal service and this isn't acceptable."
The official has worked for An Post for 38 years and has been a union official for 36 years. The union says he has an "unblemished disciplinary record" and has challenged An Post to publish any evidence of breaches of discipline by the official.
Working conditions at the DMC have caused conflict between the CWU and An Post since it opened in January, 1994. The union accuses the company of failing to implement recommendations issued by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) over six months ago to attempt to resolve matters. Talks broke down last week after An Post informed the CWU that it was taking action against the official.
The An Post spokesman said the company was examining a series of strategies to minimise the effect of the threatened strike on customers. He advised customers who want to post mail in Dublin, to Dublin or out of the country to do so over the next few days.