Stoke Posties in pledge to strike for third time

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POSTAL workers at Stoke-on-Trent's main sorting office are set to walk out indefinitely next week as their row with Royal Mail escalates.

Distribution and processing employees at Royal Mail's Stoke depot will begin a continuous strike from Tuesday unless the dispute can be resolved.

Anyone needing to post a letter in the ST1-6, 8-9 and 11-12 postcode areas during the strike would have to visit a post office to make sure their mail is delivered on time, because normal collections at other post boxes will not be taking place.

The planned action comes as Royal Mail workers at the Burslem delivery office were this morning finishing their own 24-hour strike, held as part of a national dispute over pay and jobs.

Employees at Leek Road, in Stoke, are engaged in a separate dispute with Royal Mail over plans to close their sorting office and transfer operations to Wolverhampton.

Union leaders say the proposal will leave just 15 full-time employees at the depot, with the remaining 100 having to accept redundancy or face a 60-mile round trip every day.

Workers have already staged two 24-hour strikes ahead of next week's action.

Communication Workers Union (CWU) divisional representative Mick Kavanagh said: "We're trying everything we can to get things resolved.

"This is not part of the national issue, which is about modernisation – we're talking about whether our members will have a job or not."

Royal Mail has also revealed plans to close the cash transit office at Leek Road, which employs 15 people.

The CWU says seven workers have been asked to transfer to Sheffield, Chester or Birmingham, with the rest facing the axe.

On the planned Leek Road walkout, a Royal Mail spokesman said: "We advise customers to use a post office and post as early in the day as possible."

Nationally, 25,000 CWU members were striking yesterday, today and Monday.