Postal workers threat of summer of discontent

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/c ... -24180881/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

POSTAL workers in Coventry and Warwickshire have warned of a summer of discontent as a series of localised strikes over pay and conditions threaten to explode into an all-out national dispute.

About 140 posties in Leamington were among 12,000 staff staging a series of parochial 24-hour walk-outs yesterday, and union leaders say those in Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Warwick and Atherstone could soon follow suit.

Protesters have accused Royal Mail of refusing to negotiate over pay and conditions despite making a £320 million profit last year.

Mick Kavanagh, of the Coventry Communication Workers’ Union, said: “One hundred per cent of our members were on strike in Leamington; it’s only the managers who went in.

“We’ve had quite clear support from the public because they see what’s going on here: that Royal Mail and the government are hell bent on destroying public services.

“Workers in Warwick and Coventry will be balloted on strike action in the next couple of weeks and we’ve now got plans to go into Rugby, Nuneaton and Atherstone.”

He added that localised strikes could escalate into a full-scale national dispute in the next few weeks unless Royal Mail enter into “serious negotiations” to increase pay from £16,500 a year and improve pensions.

Royal Mail has condemned the threat of further strikes and accused the union of attempting to scupper plans to modernise the business. A spokesman said: “Any moratorium on further change at Royal Mail – at a time when we urgently need to accelerate the pace of change in the face of a ten per cent decline in UK mail volumes – can only be a step backwards.”

[norbert]

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/c ... -24180881/

POSTAL workers in Coventry and Warwickshire have warned of a summer of discontent as a series of localised strikes over pay and conditions threaten to explode into an all-out national dispute.

About 140 posties in Leamington were among 12,000 staff staging a series of parochial 24-hour walk-outs yesterday, and union leaders say those in Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Warwick and Atherstone could soon follow suit.

Protesters have accused Royal Mail of refusing to negotiate over pay and conditions despite making a £320 million profit last year.

Mick Kavanagh, of the Coventry Communication Workers’ Union, said: “One hundred per cent of our members were on strike in Leamington; it’s only the managers who went in.

“We’ve had quite clear support from the public because they see what’s going on here: that Royal Mail and the government are hell bent on destroying public services.

“Workers in Warwick and Coventry will be balloted on strike action in the next couple of weeks and we’ve now got plans to go into Rugby, Nuneaton and Atherstone.”

He added that localised strikes could escalate into a full-scale national dispute in the next few weeks unless Royal Mail enter into “serious negotiations” to increase pay from £16,500 a year and improve pensions.

Royal Mail has condemned the threat of further strikes and accused the union of attempting to scupper plans to modernise the business. A spokesman said: “Any moratorium on further change at Royal Mail – at a time when we urgently need to accelerate the pace of change in the face of a ten per cent decline in UK mail volumes – can only be a step backwards.”

so that in English means we are right , no negotiation , we want a sweetheart weak union and slash and burn .

Sounds like seagull management ?