Details of mail strike out soon-Northampton

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Published Date: 24 July 2009
Royal Mail staff in Northamptonshire will announce details of industrial action in the next few days, after voting in favour of a strike.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) at the company's National Distribution Centre in Crick voted three to one in favour of strike action. The ballot was requested after attendance patterns were changed by management, which the CWU said had "absolutely no regard for people's domestic circumstances and the detrimental effect on their take home pay".

Mick Fitzmaurice, branch secretary of the CWU, said strikes would "almost certainly" coincide with action in other parts of the country.

He said: "CWU members at Northampton mail centre, Kettering, Corby and Crow Lane delivery offices will also be balloted for strike action over the coming days following similar breaches of union agreements and management bullyboy tactics."

But the industrial action has been condemned by senior management at Royal Mail, who say the strike will serve only to disrupt services to the public. A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "Royal Mail condemns the threat of strike action over much-needed modernisation and change which has already been successfully implemented by our people in the majority of offices around the UK and is working well.

"The changes are all covered by the 2007 agreement on Pay and Modernisation, which the CWU leadership signed in the presence of the TUC but which they are now reneging on in a way that clearly hurts our customers and our people and damages Royal Mail.

"The union claims to support modernisation, yet acts to destroy it and we urge the CWU to simply honour the agreement they have already signed.

"Industrial action will not modernise Royal Mail. It will simply hurt customers and disrupt the service to which they are entitled, lead to an even greater loss of business and leave Royal Mail far less able to protect full-time jobs."