News

Delegates at the CWU Ireland's conference held in Kilkenny, 7-9 May, passed a resolution to continue to oppose the structural separation of Eircom. They heard how the union had successfully campaigned against the planned structural separation which Eircom had now said was no longer on the agenda. However the delegates were wary of the proposals from the European Commission in their planned review of the EU Telecom Directives and also the actions of the Irish telecom regulator. Neil Anderson, Head of UNI Telecom, told the conference of how the New Zealand government had approved a functional separation plan of Telecom New Zealand that was only one step away from Telecom NZ being able to sell off the different parts of the business and he warned that unions should keep a wary eye on what regulators and companies were planning. He said that no one seemed to be taking the employment and social consequences of these plans into account and that the CWU was taking an important step in highlighting this issue and making their views widely known throughout the community and with the government and regulators. The delegates unanimously passed a resolution calling for the scrapping of any plans to structurally or functionally separate Eircom.