http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liv ... -21972098/
UNION officials are to launch a national campaign to try to persuade the Royal Mail to keep a sorting office in Liverpool.
It follows the announcement that Royal Mail will close its Copperas Hill sorting office in the city by 2010 and move the 580 jobs from the centre down the M62 to Warrington.
The decision came after a last-ditch effort to convince Royal Mail to relocate elsewhere in Liverpool fell many millions of pounds short of being able to secure a deal.
Around 150 Communic- ation Workers Union members met yesterday to discuss the next options and were joined by the union’s general secretary Billy Hayes.
Last night, branch secretary Mark Grayson said: “We believe the Royal Mail should be working on a national package that covers the whole country so that they are not closing mail centres in a piecemeal way.”
He said the union had been offered help by Friends of the Earth to carry out work to assess the environmental impact of transferring mail to Warrington.
Mr Grayson said that 75% of mail handled through Copperas Hill was local.
The union has already held a ballot for industrial action, but Mr Grayson said it would be used as and when it was needed.
“We will still be talking to the Royal Mail, Liverpool Vision, Liverpool City Council, and MPs.
“Just like 11 years ago when a successful campaign was mounted to save Copperas Hill we are hoping to do the same this time round.”
Royal Mail started reviewing its North West operation in February. In August, Royal Mail announced plans to open three modern mail centres and close other sorting offices.
It said two would be in Manchester and Preston, and its preferred option was for the third to be in Warrington, which would bring the closure of offices in Liverpool and Crewe. The company agreed to reconsider its plan following lobbying from Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman, unions, and agencies in the city.
Regeneration Agency Liverpool Vision worked up plans for two sites on the Estuary Business Park, in Speke, and on Stonebridge Park, on the East Lancs Road but at £30m it was far more expensive than the Warrington option.
Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley has already written to Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier to express his dismay at the decision.
In his letter he stated: “I firmly believe both the Royal Mail and the City Council can work together to find an amicable resolution that will keep the Royal Mail in Liverpool.
“At a time when we are seeing the world in recession, Liverpool has a buoyant foundation that could see us survive the major damage in industry and investment.
“Your decision is a massive set back and one that we would have hoped we could avoid, particularly as the Royal Mail are a part-publicly funded company.”
l Engineers who maintain machinery at Copperas Hill, but do not work for Royal Mail, were due to start a one day strike this morning (MON).
The stoppage is not connected to the closure of the mail centre, but to changes in their conditions.