Post workers will vote on walk-out

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/bu ... ticle.html

UNION leaders plan to ballot more than 600 Royal Mail staff over strike action against plans to close a sorting office.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will inform the firm about the vote later this month after the company confirmed it was transferring 460 jobs from Crewe to Warrington.

CWU South Cheshire branch secretary Steve Wright said workers are angry about the plans and are concerned that closing the Weston Road office will affect postal services in the region.

But he said the union still hopes to avoid industrial action.

He said: "We are looking for a massive yes vote from our office in Crewe, not to cause trouble, but to make Royal Mail sit up and take notice and come to the negotiating table.

"It doesn't mean we are definitely going to strike, it says that if you won't take our members seriously you will force us into this action, so the only ones that will be responsible will be Royal Mail.

"We are still trying to get a national agreement on how to manage change.

"They have signed an agreement that they would talk to the union, but we feel they have broken this agreement.

"Royal Mail have hinted at talks, but they need to stop hinting at talking and get back to meaningful discussions."

CWU representatives held a meeting last Wednesday and bosses at the union's headquarters are expected to inform Royal Mail of its intention to ballot in the next fortnight.

Proposals to close the sorting office were first put forward in May, weeks after the company revealed it planned to close its sorting and delivery office in Leek Road, Stoke.

Royal Mail says 260 out of 10,000 North West jobs will be axed under the plans, which also include closing Liverpool mail centre.

A spokesman said: "Crewe mail centre cannot accommodate the new automation equipment that we are investing in.

"Additionally, there is very limited potential to extend the current building and to do so would not be viable, as even with an extension, the site is too small for a modern mail centre."

But Mr Wright said families in South Cheshire would be worse off.

He said: "The offices that are under threat of closure at the moment are urgently needed.

"The service that is being given at the moment is good enough and if you move it 40 miles away it will only get worse – you can see that in Stoke-on-Trent and it is starting to happen here."

Crewe and Nantwich borough councillor Ray Stafford said people do not want the office to close.

He said: "We are very concerned about the way this is being done. Public opinion doesn't seem to stand for much in this day and age.

"The representations of the public seem to have been totally ignored and that can't be right.

"As far as is humanly possible, I would like to avoid strike action, but they seem to be forcing this action."

Borough councillor Roy Cartlidge said: "It should be about making sure the postal service is right for people and if they move the sorting office to Warrington the residents of Crewe and Nantwich are going to be affected.

"Instead of getting post in the morning, it is going to be the afternoon, or perhaps the next day, and that is wrong.

"And if it means significant job losses then it might need strike action."

[Lounge Lizard]

Do they want all of us to come out in sympathy with them ?
Saturday 27th December perhaps.