Whitney Postal strikes ahead

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/business ... kes_ahead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was perhaps too much to hope for that moving the Royal Mail sorting office from Oxford to Swindon would mean an end to the industrial problems that have dogged postal deliveries in the county for years.

Little more than two months after the switch to the new £20m Wiltshire facility, Oxfordshire businesses and householders are facing up to the prospect of more strikes, with the threat of disruption running until Christmas.

While management have succeeded in removing some of the hard-line local union stalwarts, the issues have not gone away, just simply been transferred 30 miles or so down the A420.

And the policy of brinkmanship between the Communication Workers Union and management at both local and national level appears to be continuing.

Long-suffering customers are already feeling the effect of a triple whammy of disruption with a strike at the new Swindon mail centre, which handles Oxford’s post, due to finish this morning, a national strike ballot next week and further unrest bubbling away at delivery offices across Oxfordshire.

Paul Garraway, branch secretary of the Oxfordshire Communication Workers’ Union, said: “I can’t see any side coming to an agreement before Christmas.

“Staff are consistently being forced into doing overtime, suffering bullying and harassment and management are ignoring local agreements.

“Management seem intent on forcing the de-recognition of the union. Royal Mail has no interest in the customer — it is all about profit.”

Postal deliveries across Oxfordshire were disrupted yesterday with workers at the Swindon mail centre ending their 24 hour strike at 4am.

Today’s delivery service across the county will be severely disrupted as a result of the Swindon strike.

The strike affected both the sorting of mail and its transport from the Wiltshire site.

A further strike by Swindon lorry drivers distributing the mail to Oxford is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday.

A national ballot for strike action will be held on Wednesday.

While the Oxfordshire delivery office staff are not involved in the planned stoppages, those working at delivery offices in East Oxford, Witney, Carterton and Bicester have all voted unanimously to ballot for strike action next week.

Union officials said all the disputes focused on a breakdown of local and national agreements over issues such as modernisation and workloads.

Chris Rye, secretary of the Swindon branch of the CWU, said: “Modernisation is costing jobs and workers are being forced to work hours that are not family friendly.

“The Royal Mail is not sticking to agreements that are in place.”

Mr Rye said the transfer of Oxfordshire’s sorting operation to Swindon — which cost 400 jobs when the Oxford mail centre closed earlier this year in June — was still causing unrest among the 50 staff who had transferred to Wiltshire.

“People were promised full-time duties and the company then reneged on that promise and some have not been paid their travelling and transfer terms,” he said.

“Management are refusing to take anyone on full-time contracts and are expecting us to do the extra workload.”

About 800 people work at the Swindon mail centre. A further 70 are involved in the logistics side of the business, with lorries dropping off mail in Oxford for local delivery.

Most of London and other areas such as Bristol and Plymouth will be also be affected by strikes.

Paul Tolhurst, Royal Mail’s operations director, said, “It is now more clear than ever the CWU is focusing all its efforts on strike action and political posturing.

“Their claimed support for change is no more than lip service, but their determination to damage services and undermine the future health of the business is increasing.

“Royal Mail is getting on with modernisation in an entirely fair and reasonable way which is completely in line with our existing agreement with the union on flexible working practices.”

Unless agreement between the two sides happens quickly, it looks like being an autumn of misery and a winter of discontent for Royal Mail customers in Oxfordshire.

At least it is a situation most of us have experienced before, although its chaotic effects are difficult to mitigate against.

Keith Slater, board member of the Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “On the one hand mail strikes have less impact because businesses rely less on the post for payment and are using computerised banking.

“But more and more small retail firms rely on the Internet for sales and use Royal Mail to deliver orders and these are the businesses I worry about.”

In September 2007 the Royal Mail announced it was to close the Oxford mail centre and move it along with its Reading operation to a £20m single site in Swindon.

The move took place at the end of June this year with many of the 450 workers taking redundancy.

Union activists saw it as a deliberate attempt to break their power after 16 strikes in the 18 months to December 2008. Until this week, Swindon, however, had had no strikes since 2007.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Swindon - can this really be the model Mail centre as portrayed in the fresh issue of toilet paper known as the "The Courier"

[UNION IVOR]

one of the drivers that drive too swindon mail centre said it was chaos in there today , he had a chat too some of the posties and it was strong wednesday , 97% was on strike ,well done swindon

[PhilthyPhil]

one of the drivers that drive too swindon mail centre said it was chaos in there today , he had a chat too some of the posties and it was strong wednesday , 97% was on strike ,well done swindon

Apparently it is really bad there. We have two days of collection mail sat in our DO because they don't have space to take it.

[bristolbob]

it as bad there and it will get worse than that when the national stike happens , that was just one day ,my friend who works
there said it was back log city , 2 weeks to clear,mined you i did say to my mate it took them long a enough too get a ballot in.but 97% well that was good and on the local news as well.

[UNION IVOR]

it as bad there and it will get worse than that when the national stike happens , that was just one day ,my friend who works
there said it was back log city , 2 weeks to clear,mined you i did say to my mate it took them long a enough too get a ballot in.but 97% well that was good and on the local news as well.

ya 97% good job well done