Bridgend Postal workers to take strike action

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POSTAL workers in South Wales are due to strike in a row over pay, jobs and services.

The 40 lorry drivers at Royal Mail’s centre in Bridgend are to down tools on Saturday and Sunday as part of a national strike organised by the Communication Workers’ Union(CWU).

Changes to working practices across the Royal Mail network have prompted the action from the South Wales workers, who balloted for industrial action several months ago.

The union is preparing to hold a national ballot for strikes among 130,000 workers later this month over the changes which are expected to be made across the entire group.

Royal Mail bosses say the action will not affect services in South Wales, despite strikes having already left millions of unsorted items across the UK, according to the CWU.

There is a backlog of 20 million items in London, one million in Bristol, 500,000 in Peterborough and 250,000 in Leeds, the union said. Fresh strikes have also been announced for next week, hitting London, Birmingham, Coventry, Essex, Warrington, Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds, as well as South Wales.

Charlie Balch, area distribution representative for the CWU, said: “At the moment there’s record amounts of mail held up in the post because of the industrial action.

“It centres around phase four of the pay and modernisation agreement. Management are refusing to honour that agreement concerning further negotiations. They are refusing to meet the national union, bringing in changes and putting them in place by executive action, rather than a national deal.

“The articulated lorry drivers in Bridgend have taken a week of industrial action already and the ballot papers are out next Wednesday for further industrial action.”

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: “Royal Mail’s head in the sand approach to the problems in the mail industry is now severely damaging services for customers, with backlogs bigger than in the national strike of 2007. Management have been attacking and bullying our members through unagreed, often unworkable, changes. The dismissive attitude to staff at the same time as cuts to jobs, hours and overtime and a pay-freeze has made Royal Mail a dismal place to work.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The amount of mail delayed is absolutely not the 20 million figure claimed by the union but nearer to four to five million letters, which we expect to clear in the next few days.”

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A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The amount of mail delayed is absolutely not the 20 million figure claimed by the union but nearer to four to five million letters, which we expect to clear in the next few days.”

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