An Post staff form action group

A protest will be mounted on Leeside this weekend to fight back against the closure of the Cork Mail Centre and the resulting jobs losses. 

A new group has been established by some of the workers to try to reverse the deicision that was recently made to close the mail centre in Little Island. 

The decision was taken to form the Cork Mail Centre Action Group at a meeting of about 100 workers in the Vienna Woods Hotel last weekend. 

A statement from the group said: “We fail to see the necessity of closing a strategically placed hub when An Post is experiencing a major boom in the parcel market. We are calling on An Post and the Government to respect the decision of the Dáil which voted overwhelmingly last week to support saving the mail centre and the jobs.”

The Cork Mail Centre Action Group is organising a peaceful protest demonstration on Saturday 20 July, details of which will be released in due course. The group has said that all An Post workers and members of the public are invited to attend the demonstration. 

Meanwhile, a call to reverse An Post’s decision was given local political backing on Monday. It was agreed to suspend standing orders at Monday’s meeting of Cork City Council so as councillors could pass a motion calling for the mail centre to remain open and operating. 

Sinn Féin Cllr Thomas Gould said: “Cork and workers always seem to be the ones that get hurt. There is no need to close the centre at all. TDs are beginning to realise too that Cork is being shafted here.”

The consolidation of letters operations will see the closure of the Cork Mails Centre in Little Island with the loss of 216 jobs, affecting 240 people, it was announced last month. 

Currently the Cork plant, An Post say, is operating at below 25 per cent capacity as mail volumes decline at about seven per cent per annum due to customers moving from the world of letters to the new world of parcels and e-commerce. The closure will be phased between September 2019 and March 2020 and staff will be offered:

•  Strong exit packages of six weeks per year of service up a maximum of two years’ pay
•  Redeployment opportunities within An Post’s networks in the Cork area 
•  Further education/re-skilling grants up to €3,000 per person
• Help to secure jobs with new employers at a jobs fair and outplacement support