National postal strike misery to start next week

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Royal Mail workers are planning a series of nationwide three-day postal strikes, bringing misery to millions of families and businesses in the run-up to Christmas.


David Harrison
Published: 7:30AM BST 11 Oct 2009

The stoppages will begin next week with a 24-hour all-out strike – probably on Monday or Tuesday – followed by a succession of three-day 'rolling strikes'. The strategy will bring widespread disruption while ensuring that workers lose only one day's pay for each three-day action.

The plans for industrial action will be announced by the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) after a meeting tomorrow (Mon) afternoon. The union has to give seven days notice of a stoppage.

Before the announcement, union leaders will repeat their earlier offer to go to mediation in the dispute. Royal Mail is expected to reject that offer.

Billy Hayes, the leader of the Communication Workers Union told The Sunday Telegraph: "We don't want to strike and we are sorry for any disruption we cause to the public and to businesses.

"We want an agreement but it seems the Royal Mail does not." He claimed that the strike action would benefit Royal Mail customers "in the long-term" because the workers were "fighting to provide a better service".

The three-day stoppages over the Royal Mail's modernisation plans will involve different groups of workers on each day: postmen will walk out on the first day, drivers on the second and sorting office staff on the third.

Each three-day strike will disrupt postal services for at least a further two days, causing chaos in the run-up to Christmas when volumes of mail peak.

The order in which workers walk out could be changed in subsequent rolling strikes, increasing the impact on postal services.

A senior union source said: "I do not want to pre-empt what the executive will decide, but a 24-hour all-out strike followed by rolling three-day strikes is the likely scenario and that could start next Monday or Tuesday."

Mr Hayes said the union was "not living in the Dark Ages" and added: "In this day and age, companies that want to modernise have to take the workforce with them. We know there will be job cuts but we want those cuts to be agreed."

A Royal Mail spokesman condemned the strike plan and said the employers were "still open to negotiations" in a last-ditch attempt to avert the strike. Talks are expected to continue later this week but both sides are pessimistic. "A strike is 99 per cent certain," the union source said.

Royal Mail has brought forward the recruitment of hundreds of agency workers in anticipation of the strike. Around 20,000 extra workers are taken on each year to cope with the increased workload in the run-up to Christmas, but a senior Royal Mail source said that "many hundreds" were being hired early to ease the effects of the strike.

Managers will also help "to keep as much mail moving as possible", a spokesman said. However, recent regional strikes have left a backlog of at least four million letters – many more, according to the union – and a national strike will see that figure soar.

Royal Mail says its modernisation programme, involving job cuts and changes in working practices, is essential if the company is to remain competitive.

The strike is likely to cost Royal Mail millions of pounds in lost business that may never return as internet retailers such as Amazon, Argos and Tesco Direct switch to other courier firms, and banks and energy companies encourage customers to sign up for online accounts.

Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce, described the strike vote as "akin to a death wish".

[DirtyHarry]

I like the way businessmen keep trotting out the hoary old line, "striking is akin to having a death wish," as if the plans Royal Mail management have in place for us if we don't strike, are somehow a boon for all postal workers.
Businessmen have to get it through their extra-thick skulls that we have little choice but to strike, that the vote was one of the most overwhelming in the CWU's history, and means that many who would have traditionally voted NO, or simply ignored the ballot completely, voted YES. Crozier and his cronies have completely lost the confidence of the overwhelming majority of postal workers.

[steven100]

How many people are going to cross official picket lines???? So, when the mail centres are out and ie petrol or missorts are due for collected how many will cross??? Or if do's have picket lines how many drivers will cross??
I think 1 day strikes will lead to all out strike. Start saving guys.

[BELIAL]

I like the way businessmen keep trotting out the hoary old line, "striking is akin to having a death wish," as if the plans Royal Mail management have in place for us if we don't strike, are somehow a boon for all postal workers.
Businessmen have to get it through their extra-thick skulls that we have little choice but to strike, that the vote was one of the most overwhelming in the CWU's history, and means that many who would have traditionally voted NO, or simply ignored the ballot completely, voted YES. Crozier and his cronies have completely lost the confidence of the overwhelming majority of postal workers.

Makes me smile every time I read the "Turkeys "" Death wish" stuff cos you know what they mean is "s**t this is going to cost us a fortune"

Just goes to show how much power us postal workers really do have over the commercial world, after all hardly worth getting that upset about stuff that will not affect you

Poor old Crozier and his crew the game plan went pear shaped with that ballot and now their making it up on the hoof. They lost the workforce big time ,this is a monster management failure and the pressure on Adam from the fat cats will be growing everyday cos his failure is costing them

[jockstrapp]

If mail volumes are down 10% why do RM need 20,000 extra posties one month earlier than other years :cfo

[Spedley]

We've never had extra staff over Christmas, just a good will with no cut-offs. You can't take holidays during that period anyway so most offices should be overstaffed (i.e. all those people covering annual leave will be free to do other things).

It is still 3 months to christmas, I don't know why we have been delivery Christmas catalouges since May?

I really can't understand why people seem to think that Royal Mails is an entity seperate from it's employees. With such a large workforce and manual labour being most of the work, surely Royal Mail workers ARE The Royal Mail?

[RoyalQuest]

the problem with 3 day rolling strikes is that you don't know who is supposed to be crossing the line and who is not, especially if you work on a site with a mail center and delivery office, things can get very confusing. ALL OUT!! Not bits here and there. I understand that the executives are trying to cause as little damage to our pay packets as possible but i would prefer ALL OUT one or two days a week, eg friday-saturday the first week and monday - tuesday the next week, members would only lose 2 days a week but this would cause max disruption.

[DirtyHarry]

Makes me smile every time I read the "Turkeys "" Death wish" stuff cos you know what they mean is "s**t this is going to cost us a fortune"

Just goes to show how much power us postal workers really do have over the commercial world, after all hardly worth getting that upset about stuff that will not affect you

Poor old Crozier and his crew the game plan went pear shaped with that ballot and now their making it up on the hoof. They lost the workforce big time ,this is a monster management failure and the pressure on Adam from the fat cats will be growing everyday cos his failure is costing them

Eventually they'll drown in a pool of their own dishonesty, just hope I'm around long enough to gloat to my hearts content.