Rally as posties look to stamp out 'bullying'

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A MASS meeting of postal workers is to be held outside Weston-super-Mare Royal Mail depot next week to decide their next step in an ongoing dispute with management.

The meeting is due to take place outside the depot in Warne Road on Tuesday and will allow union bosses and staff to discuss their next move in the row. Dozens of staff at the depot staged a walkout last Saturday as part of a dispute about overloaded deliveries, allegations of bullying and harassment from managers, and the alleged use of unagreed conduct procedures.

Workers at the depot say that managers are running amok and targeting individuals they perceive are not working hard enough.

Workers claim local managers will not accept that staff who perform delivery rounds day in, day out are overloaded and jobs cannot be completed on time. Deliveries in Kewstoke, Wick St Lawrence, Worle, Weston-super-Mare, Locking, Bleadon and Hutton from the depot were disrupted by the weekend's strike action.

Communications Workers Union Bristol area official David Wilshire said the next course of action would be decided at Tuesday's meeting.

But he warned that unless matters can be resolved, further strike action could be forthcoming.

Mr Wilshire said: "Postal workers in Weston have made it clear they will not tolerate the current management approach.

"We will be meeting our members next Tuesday in order to agree the next course of action.

"Royal Mail will be given every opportunity and a reasonable amount of time to resolve this dispute in a sensible and mature manner.

"If this is not the case then further strike action cannot be ruled out at Weston."

Bosses at Royal Mail said they are hoping a resolution can be reached, and described the strike action as "disappointing". A spokesman for the company said: "Royal Mail is fully committed to the process of trying to resolve concerns of postal workers based in Weston-super-Mare. We have made significant progress in recent months.

"We urge the CWU not to call our people out on strike action which can only hurt our customers."