16,000 postal workers to strike

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BREAKING NEWS: 16,000 postal workers to strike over working conditions and pay
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TWO Edmonton sorting offices are at the forefront of a London-wide strike in response to efficiency savings introduced by Royal Mail.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), which represents the postal workers, said 159 notices of industrial action were served on Gillian Alford, the head of industrial relations at Royal Mail, at 5.00pm last night.

The CWU expects 16,000 postal workers from across London to strike in about a month's time.

The ballot papers are today being sent to 159 depots across London, which include delivery offices, sorting offices and distribution hubs.

The strike will affect both sorting offices in Edmonton, which are at the “spearhead” of cutbacks, according to John Simkins, the CWU representative for London.

On March 30, postal workers in the Leeds Street sorting office went on strike over the introduction of 35-hour working week contracts for three new staff.

Mr Simkins said: “They are cutting full-time jobs and replacing them with part-time workers because it is cheaper.”

Royal Mail wrote to about a thousand North London staff in February offering them voluntary redundancy and part-time contracts in a bid to save money.

Plans privatise tp to 49 per cent the postal service are set to go ahead after an anti-privatisation amendment to a new Post Office bill was defeated in the House of Lords today.

The Government says the state-owned firm is under increasing competition from more efficient private delivery companies, while the company has a £6bn pensions deficit.

Ballot papers are being sent out today and will be returned in about two weeks, when a strike date will then be set.

Mr Simkins said: “We know we will get a yes vote, we are getting some really good feedback. We have just been told we are not going to get a pay rise this year and they have cancelled our bonus scheme, which is just a couple of hundred quid for a postal worker, though the senior management bonus scheme which averages £10,000 per bonus will stay.”

One of the Leeds Street postal workers, Mark Dolan, said senior managers are now sorting mail and postal workers are struggling to finish their rounds.

The CWU says that up to 16,000 postal workers' jobs across the country are at risk.