London calling,and then some

20th May 09 : Union rep

London are being balloted for strike action along with 50 other offices around the country over Royal Mail's cuts in services to the public and their jobs, terms and conditions.

In a letter to management the London Divisional Committee are asking Royal Mail to abide to national agreements and that their actions are in breach of the MTSF the IR Framework and the Pay & Mod agreements to name just a few.

The ballot opens on Monday 18th May and runs for two weeks.

Martin Walsh London Division

"It is clear that Royal Mail is deliberately running down the Royal Mail service ahead of partial privatisation.

"This has nothing whatsoever to do with modernising the postal service as walk sorting machines have still not been introduced despite the funding being available for the purchase of this equipment for the last three years. Instead, this is about the destruction of services, the erosion of full time jobs and reducing the terms and conditions of the lowest paid workers in Royal Mail whilst at the same time managers continue to profit from fat cat bonuses and obscene rates of pay.

"London postal workers want a nationally negotiated Agreement, not a strike. However, whilst Royal Mail continues to virtually derecognise the CWU and break existing National Agreements including, in our view, breaking the law on redundancy, then we will take whatever means necessary to preserve Royal Mail as a respected and cherished public service.

"The strike ballot in London is about defending the future of Royal Mail and the services it provides to the public. We're also protecting our members against Royal Mail's slash and burn policy and attempts to try and fool the public with that old trick of rubbish the system so privatisation looks better. The public are a lot more sophisticated and won't fall for that old trick.

"Despite the lies espoused in some quarters, Royal Mail is not in crisis. Unlike TNT and Deutsche Post, Royal Mail announced record profits yesterday with profit doubling."

cwu.org

PEC

We have already balloted over 50 other offices around the country and have received some excellent results,some of these offices which includes many in Scotland have already taken Industrial Action.

We are 100% behind the decision to ballot London and we fully support their action in helping the National Union pursue National Agreements covering the modernisation of the industry.

The industry cannot move forward successfully without the support and consent of its workforce.

Royal Mail

In a letter to London postal workers Royal Mail promise that they will not be forcing employees to go part-time unless they want to,and say that they aim to make changes by voluntary means.

But there seems to be a bit of a flaw in their statement as many offices are being told to cut 40hr duties to 30hrs and managers have no answer when postal workers ask what happens when there is no one taking up a 30hr buy down.

Managers in huddles and WTL this week had no answer to the barrage of questions that they received regarding Mail Centre employees being compulsorily transferred to delivery offices,what will happen as it seems full time jobs will soon run out,what if no one wants to transfer out to another office,where are the machines that are supposed to be used for modernisation that were promised years ago,plus many more which were answered by managers shrugging their shoulders!

Registered members can discuss this and much more in our forums...

HERE