Irish postal action affecting U.S.

Staff at United States Post Offices have been given an advisory notice to warn customers that mail to Ireland will not get delivered because “a mail strike is looming,” and instead are recommending the USPS’s more expensive express delivery service — or a private company — both of which cost significantly more. A newspaper mailed to Ireland at an airmail rate of $9 now costs in the region of $21.95.
All inbound and outbound international mail, including to and from Northern Ireland, has stopped because of the dispute, which centers on a new sorting system introduced by An Post, the Irish mail service, at the Dublin Mail Center.
An Post has advised people in Counties Dublin, Wicklow, Meath, Monaghan and Louth not to post any mail. Nor should people elsewhere in Ireland mail letters or parcels to those areas.
More than 500 staff members have been suspended after their union, the Communications Workers’ Union, said the new sorting system was imposed without consultation and told the staff not to perform certain duties.
Post boxes were sealed across the capital last week as mediators said a resolution of the row over cost-cutting measures looked “a long way off.” Representatives from both sides have accepted an invitation from LRC Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey to attend another meeting today.
Companies countrywide are expressing concern that the dispute is crippling business.
And one enterprising private courier company has been recruiting retirees, who receive free public transport in Ireland, to carry and deliver parcels around the country.
An Post and the Communications Workers’ Union have begun separate talks chaired by the Labor Relations Commission in a bid to solve the dispute, which has plunged parts of the country’s mail service into chaos.
“An Post has great concerns about the capability of the CWU to conclude the process successfully,” a spokesperson for the mail service said.
The CWU yesterday decided to establish a “solidarity fund” for members who have been suspended by the company.
The row is crippling business, according to many Irish companies, as 60 percent of the country’s mail goes through the Dublin Mail Center.
Minister for Communications Dermot Ahern said he was in daily touch with An Post but he did not have a “magic wand” with which to intervene.
Each country retains all postal revenue for international mail posted within its borders, according to international mailing procedures. But periodically the aggregate amount of mail exchanged between, say, the U.S. and Ireland, is accounted for, and a reconciliation of accounts takes place.