Strikers say they are trying to save Royal Mail

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PICKET-line postal workers yesterday claimed their act of defiance against Royal Mail was the ‘last line of defence’ against moves to privatise the institution.

About 870 Royal Mail staff based in Dorcan were expected to end a 24 hour strike at 4am this morning.

Striking workers claimed industrial action was the only way to stop the postal service from “going the way of British Rail” – which was privatised in 1994.

Picketers said they feared that if the almost 400-year-old company is privatised its prices could be tripled by ‘profit-hungry firms’.

“In the past six years 2,500 Post Offices have been shut and 40,000 employees laid off,” said Adam Poynter, early shift health and safety worker.

“Is that modernisation? Modernisation in today’s world seems to be about getting rid of full-time staff and bringing in agency staff.

“It seems Royal Mail is intent on driving itself into the ground so much that there will be no choice but to privatise it.

“We are not just fighting for our livelihoods but for the customers too.”

Sandy Best, equality officer from the Communication Workers Union (CWU), who was among those on the picket line outside Dorcan Mail Centre yesterday, said: “If the Royal Mail becomes private it will be one more national institution gone that was once quite good.

“The railways used to be fantastic public service, but now they are private – and look what’s happened since.”

The workers’ comments preceded the end of a national ballot on more industrial action — the results of which are due to become public on October 8.

If the vote favours industrial action a strike will follow within 30 days.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “Royal Mail is a company that needs to modernise to survive, however the union, whilst on the face of it is saying it’s up for modernisation, is actually doing pretty much everything it can to frustrate those changes on the ground.

“Modernisation is taking place on two fronts. One is changing working practices which quite simply means asking people to work all the hours they are paid to work, working flexibly during those hours to match the workload and using the new modern equipment that we are providing.

“The second part is bringing in the new sorting machinery to handle mail more efficiently.

“Post Offices play an important social and economic role in the communities they serve.

“The network’s losses rose from about £2m a week in 2005 to almost £4m a week in 2007 and were likely to increase further unless action was taken to make the network more sustainable,” he said.