Plans will cause postal 'meltdown'

[ade@cambs]

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fne ... ?ID=454929



Plans will cause postal 'meltdown'
raymond.brown@cambridge-news.co.uk
Cambridge - Royal Mail A UNION claims the post in Cambridge will "go into meltdown" if Royal Mail delivers its modernisation plans.

The stark warning comes after postal workers yesterday voted in favour of a national strike in a bitter row over jobs, pay and services.

They threaten widespread disruption to mail deliveries in the coming weeks.

The Communication Workers Union said its members backed a nationwide walkout by 3-1 in protest at the "imposition" of changes to working practices as well as cuts in their pay and job losses.

Union spokesman Steve Butts has told the News that families living in the city centre were already feeling the brunt of modernisation.

Residents and businesses in Romsey, Coleridge, Peterhouse and parts of Cherry Hinton are already being affected by cuts in the number of postal workers.

Staff serving the CB1 postcode have been slashed from 23 full-time staff to 13 full-time and four parttimers, in the first phase of cutbacks in the Cambridge area.

And the union claims that casual workers drafted in from Watford are lost in the city trying to deliver to 800 homes each in one shift.

Mr Butts said: "People in the CB1 postcode are already getting a taste of what it will be like, but it will get worse. They have delayed the next stages until next year, but if they come in there will be a postal meltdown across the city."

The union says people can wait for up to three days for post after its arrival at the Henley Road postal centre, which is likely to have already been delayed.

Almost 81,000 CWU members took part in the ballot and a total of 61,623 backed strikes.

Mr Butts said: "We are taking this action to save jobs and services."

Postal affairs minister Lord Young 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."

Mark Higson, Royal Mail's managing director, said: "It is clearly reprehensible for the union to continue to hold strikes when Royal Mail is not planning any further efficiency changes for the rest of 2009 and the priority facing everyone in Royal Mail is to deliver the best possible service to customers in the run up to Christmas."

■ Do you live in the CB1 postcode area? Have you noticed your post is being delivered later? Email newsdesk @cambridge-news.co.uk with your views or write to Cambridge News, Winship Road, Milton, CB24 6PP.

[Lounge Lizard]

"Staff serving the CB1 postcode have been slashed from 23 full-time staff to 13 full-time and four parttimers"
The words 'quart' and 'pint pot' spring to mind.