The 1979 postal strike a wife’s experience
The letter from the lady about the postal strike and the unions treatment of the anniversary tells me in no uncertain terms that it may be 30 years on since that dispute but the service we receive from our full time union officials has not changed and is still abysmal.
The union were prepared to shovel 250,000 euro of union funds into a film about James Connolly but could not spent even a tenth of that to commerate the struggle of its own members 30 years ago which is described very well by the woman whose husband was on strike.
There would never have been a rising in 1916 without James Connolly and it was only because of his insistence that the rising took place at all. His place in Irish history is assured as a champion of working people and still shines brightly and we don’t need to invest in a film as a token of our esteem for him.
The individual who took it upon his or her self to challenge what they believed was an injustice in regard to the duty competition and their subsequent victory shows that we should not take everything as verbatim.
What I would like to know is who made this agreement who signed it and did they read the agreement before signing it. CWU officials are well paid to look after workers interest and maybe a little more time reading the small print might be in all our interests.
If the C W U wants to be charitable and donate money to deserving causes then they should remember the old saying that charity begins at home and money spent in commemorating the 1979 strike or taking legal action about the ESOP and the medical refund scheme might be more in the interests of the membership. I have no objection to monies donated to a film about James Connolly, but I think we would be better looking after the living first.
Charity begins at home