LOW level letter boxes were the high point of the Communications Workers' Union conference in Tralee yesterday. After the high drama of the stand off with Telecom Eireann over the employee share option scheme (ESOP) on Wednesday, it was back to low tech, low level postal deliveries yesterday.
The prospective departure of the union general secretary, Mr David Begg, to become chief executive of Concern, has caused dismay. He has won the respect of members by steering the union through a series of crises at An Post and Telecom Eireann and bringing them to the brink of success on the ESOP scheme at Telecom.
New names and new concepts are part and parcel of the rapidly changing world of the CWU. The long serving personnel officer at An Post, Mr Jack Russell, is also due to retire, just as postal workers are beginning to come to grips with Rover, the new computer based system for allocating routes to postal personnel.
But it was the growing problem of letter boxes that most exercised members. Dublin delegate, Mr Michael Langsdorf, said when he had first raised the issue of low level letter boxes to years ago, "it was a mild infection. Now it's a major epidemic. Major surgery is now needed to remove this cancer.
In Dublin, three quarters of the 33,725 houses built last year had low level letter boxes, he said. However, in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, Democratic Left councillor, Mr Den is O'Callaghan, had a by law passed that all local authority housing must have letter boxes at least 42 inches from the ground. Mr O'Callaghan, it emerged, was also a postman.