Anger over Royal Mail strike plan

[DOM]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f2070ea-b402 ... ab49a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By Brian Groom, Business and Employment Editor

Published: October 8 2009 13:44 | Last updated: October 8 2009 18:54

Businesses complained they were being “held to ransom” as the postal workers’ union announced on Thursday that 121,000 Royal Mail staff had voted overwhelmingly for national strikes over jobs, pay and working conditions.

Companies fear that national action, on top of regional strikes over the past three months, will cause widespread disruption to postal deliveries and hinder economic recovery in the run-up to Christmas.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Postal strike delivers opening for carriers - Sep-22.Tories say post strike ‘like death wish’ - Sep-17..The Communication Workers Union said its members backed nationwide walkouts by three to one in protest at the “imposition” of changes to working practices as well as cuts in pay and job losses.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary, said his union would meet next Monday to agree its next step and would give the Royal Mail a “final opportunity” to resolve the dispute over the next 10 days.

He added that members had delivered a “damning verdict on the way the Royal Mail is run. We understand the need for modernisation but it needs to be done in a way that protects workers.” The CWU said 76 per cent of those who took part in the ballot voted for a strike.

The union will have to give seven days’ notice of what are likely to be one- or two-day strikes, raising the threat of industrial action across the country by the end of the month, just two years after the last national stoppage.

The Royal Mail condemned the strike plan as “deplorable and irresponsible”, saying it would drive away customers and undermine confidence in the postal service.

It said 60 per cent of the total number of postal workers did not vote to strike.

Robert Keitch, head of the Direct Marketing Association, representing a £128bn-a-year industry that employs 3 per cent of the UK workforce, said the effects would “become colossal very quickly”.

He said it was a “disgrace” that the government, as Royal Mail’s shareholder, was not intervening to try to avert the strikes.

Lord Young, postal affairs minister, said: “A national postal strike is completely self-defeating and will only serve to hurt consumers and businesses who rely on the post and drive even more people away from using mail as a means of communication.”

Small companies are likely to be worst hit, along with those using the post to send goods.

Businesses fear the cost could exceed that of the last national dispute in 2007, estimated to have cost £300m to London companies alone.

The Forum of Private Business said industrial action would cause “huge disruption” and “many will feel as if they are being held to ransom because Royal Mail and the CWU cannot find agreement”.

Courier companies benefit from the strikes but they are of little help to Royal Mail’s bigger private sector competitors such as UK Mail and TNT Post, which collect and sort mail but rely on the state-owned operator for final delivery.

“Mail as a medium will get a bad name,” said one private mail company, fearing loss of business to e-mail.

The Federation of Small Businesses said small companies found it difficult to find alternative carriers to Royal Mail because of their smaller mailing volumes.

Ebay, the online marketplace, said it had decided temporarily to remove the option for buyers to rate sellers on the time taken to dispatch an item.

Amazon, the online retailer, said it was working on contingency measures with other carriers in an attempt to avoid disruption to deliveries in the run-up to Christmas.

Home Delivery Network, a rival operator, said it was seeing a number of customers preparing to start marketing their deliveries as “free of Royal Mail risk”.

[Fred B]

Courier companies benefit from the strikes but they are of little help to Royal Mail’s bigger private sector competitors such as UK Mail and TNT Post, which collect and sort mail but rely on the state-owned operator for final delivery.

Ain't life a bitch?

[andy2007]

How can Businesses claim that we're holding them to ransom. If there are so many competitors?
Either there IS competition, or there ISN'T!

If there is NO competition (which is the truth), then the USO should be protected. We shouldn't be having later, and later, deliveries. We should be having them by 14:00 Town, 15:00 Rural. So we need to be staffed appropriately to achieve that.

If there IS competition (in Labour's dreams!), then no-one can accuse us of holding them to ransom. Because there's alternatives to using us.

Make your minds up. Either there's competiton, or there isn't!!!!!