Eastwood Postal staff to fight 'ridiculous' changes

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Postal staff in Eastwood have vowed to fight on after staging a 24-hour strike over work shifts and patterns.
Union leaders say 30 workers out of the 75 based at the sorting office on Meadowbank Way have had their walking delivery times increased from three-and-a-half hours to four hours, and many have moved to cover bigger rural areas to accommodate new par
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t-time staff.

Postman Andy Green is the Eastwood representative for the Communication Workers' Union, which represents Royal Mail staff. He claims full-time workers have seen changes to their delivery routes to accommodate new part-timers and also said sorting staff have also had their overtime slashed.

On Friday, staff staged a 24-hour walk-out. But this week Royal Mail bosses have vowed not to bend. Mr Green, who has been a postman in Eastwood for nearly ten years, has been moved out to Nuthall.

He said: "A lot of people in Eastwood know me and know where I leave the mail and so on. I don't see why we should be left with these heavy bags for any longer, particularly in the summer when it's hot. We had someone keel over in the heat in June as it is."

Mr Green claims the changes came in last month without union agreement, the first time this has happened in Nottinghamshire in more than 20 years.

The 45-year-old said: "We didn't want to come out, for the sake of the public, but we've just had to make a stand for the people that are absolutely fed up. Some haven't got toilet breaks, it's absolutely ridiculous. Royal Mail has made £320million over the last year, managers have had bonuses and we have had nothing but extra work."

A national strike is being planned for later this year in protest of pay and changes to pension plans and many Eastwood staff are due to strike again.

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: "Any changes we are making are fully in line with the existing agreement on modernisation and everything we ask our people to do is reasonable and all the changes we are making – which have already been implemented in many offices around the country – are in line with both the letter and the spirit of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement on flexible working practices."

Royal Mail in Eastwood covers Kimberley, Nuthall, Brinsley, Eastwood, Langley Mill and all the way up to Ironville. Postal workers in Eastwood also staged a strike in 2007 about pay rises and pensions.