Tens of thousands of pensioners, welfare recipients and other customers of An Post will be inconvenienced this week by the planned industrial action of the Communications Workers' Union (CWU).
It will be the second major disruption of services this year. A 24-hour stoppage has been designed, according to the trade union, to "rescue the national postal service from wanton and senseless destruction by an incompetent and untrustworthy management". This is industrial relations madness. And CWU officials must know it.
The choices at An Post are stark: adopt extensive changes in administrative and work practices, or succumb to competition from the private sector.
At present, the only monopoly An Post still retains under EU competition laws is for postal deliveries. And that ends in 2009. The time available to modernise is short. Going to war with management over changes forced on the company by huge financial losses and outside competition may temporarily assuage the anger of union members, but it does not serve their long-term interests.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, acknowledged this harsh reality last week when he declared that unless a top quality, efficient and customer-friendly service was developed by An Post, the company would be wiped out. The Minister is the main shareholder in the State-owned company. And workers and management should pay close attention to his message that the Government will not indefinitely bail out a loss-making company.
Last August, An Post decided to close its loss-making parcels service, SDS, after it failed to compete with private sector companies. There would be 270 voluntary redundancies, with the remaining workforce and the parcels business being reabsorbed into An Post. The CWU objected. And, rather than precipitate a strike, management agreed to the appointment of a facilitator. Since then, losses have mounted and there has been no meeting of minds.
Relations between unions and management have become extremely fraught. But industrial relations procedures exist to deal with such difficulties. They must be used. An Post cannot afford to alienate its customers or add to its financial difficulties.
No matter how frustrating or difficult it is for CWU officials in the present circumstances, they share a common interest with management. The company must become profitable if it is to survive. A work stoppage is not in anyone's interests.