Royal Mail postal strike to hit London

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http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20090 ... week_4.htm

By Rebecca Smith
22 September 2009 @ 12:08 pm BST


Royal Mail postal strike to hit London

Amidst the national ballot taking place, where 130,000 postal workers of Royal Mail will vote whether the Communication Workers Union (CWU) should declare a nationwide strike, a series of local postal strikes are being organised by the CWU.

The union representing the Royal Mail postal workers is in a serious and intense dispute with the Royal Mail management. The core issue surrounding the bitter dispute is that of modernisation. The Royal Mail believes modernisation is the only way ahead for the national postal service to survive and is pushing forward aggressively. The union, however, believes that it is being sidelined in the modernisation plans and its concerns are not properly addressed by the Royal Mail management.

This has resulted in a series of localised postal strikes that have hit many parts of the UK and caused massive backlog of post.

In the recent series of strikes taking place on the week beginning on September 21, London is hit hard on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The sorting office at Mount Pleasant in London, which is one of the largest in the country, was on strike yesterday. This would lead to severe delays in postal deliveries.

Tuesday September 22, will see postal workers taking part in strike at Nine Elms mail centre and drivers at the Battersea and Wimbledon hub.

The night office workers will begin the industrial action on Tuesday night and will continue till Wednesday morning at the following delivery office locations: Cricklewood, East London, Hampstead, Kilburn, NW1, Rathbone Place, SLMC SW1, Wimbledon, Willesden, Stratford, Poplar/Docklands, Southwark and Woolwich.

Wednesday will see a massive walkout in London with workers at all of London's deliveries and collection offices, except those that were already on strike early this week, participating in the strike.

The fallout of the strikes is set to delay postal deliveries and collections across the capital.

Royal Mail has stated that there will be limited collection today in SW1 to SW20 areas and limited collection in all areas except EC and SW on Wednesday.

The heavy industrial action on Wednesday will affect deliveries the following days due to the massive build up of mail volumes.

A statement by Royal Mail said: "Further industrial action is planned in London by the CWU on Wednesday 23rd September which will affect deliveries and customer collections across London."

"We recognise that every item posted is important to our customers. We have strong contingency plans in operation in London and we’re concentrating all our resources on minimising disruption."

The national ballot will close on 8th October.

CLICK HERE FOR RELATED ARTICLES ON THE ROYAL MAIL DISPUTE