As members will be aware a Europe wide protest will take place tomorrow 6th June 2007, against plans by the European Commission to open all postal business to full competition.  As a result of this all of An Post's main Post Offices will be closed between 1.00pm and 2.00pm.  The protest has been organised by UNI Postal Global Union which represents 2 million workers in the European postal sector and their families.

Uni Global Union which represents over 2 million postal workers across Europe has published a number of interesting and informative articles on its web site.  The articles relate to the proposed liberalisation of the European Postal Market and the campaign against it currently being undertaken by postal workers right across Europe.  The following links are to the most recent articles

The Communications Workers' Union met with BT members on the 3rd May 2007 in order to discuss recent events and specifically the decision by BT Management not to engage in a meaningful way with the CWU as the chosen representative body for BT staff in the Republic of Ireland.

In what was a very well attended meeting, with a lot of new members in attendance the Union set out the events that have led to the current juncture and outlined a number of options available to staff in BT at this time.  In addition the Union advised members that a letter had been sent to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) seeking the assistance of the Advisory Services Division under the provisions of the Enhanced Code of Practice on Voluntary Dispute Resolution (SI76/2004).  The Union outlined to those present the process involved in this procedure up to and including the Labour Court.

On foot of an application from An Post to review the pricing structure with a view to putting in place an ‘interim’ price increase from March 1st 2007, Comreg invited any interested party to make a submission in relation to the proposals.  The CWU made the following submission to ComReg (Communications Regulator)

The European Commission has taken the final step on the path towards the total liberalisation of the postal services by proposing that the distribution of "small" mail by our postmen be opened to free competition on 1 January 2009, this being the last sector which has not yet been liberalised.