An Post lockout is a national disgrace

I AM not a postal worker, but like everyone else I benefit from the services of the committed men and women who deliver the mail through my letterbox in all weathers.

If the postal workers were to seal up all the letterboxes and prevent people from posting their letters there would be an outcry that they were holding the country to ransom.

I object to An Post management doing so, and I also condemn them for taking the keys of those same boxes from the drivers in order to escalate the problem. As a taxpayer I object to the exorbitant payment to John Hynes, the former chief executive, by a company which continues to lock out their low-paid workers and suspend others. It is a national disgrace.

Partnership is a two-way street. Where is the 14%+ promised in shares to these same workers back in 2000?

An Post management are escalating this crisis in order to lay off as many workers as possible and then bring in a foreign company to run An Post.

I commend the forbearance of the workers in the face of extreme provocation from the Government, IBEC, An Post management and, unfortunately, some of the leaders of the trade union movement.

Fellow trade unionists and workers owe these men and women their wholehearted support.

Phil Robert,

4, Sycamore Green,

The Park,

Cabinteely,

Dublin 18.