100,000 in stampede for mail strike jobs

[Stormproof]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... -jobs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A JOBS stampede began yesterday as Royal Mail started recruiting to beat the postal strike.

By the weekend as many as 100,000 unemployed people are expected to have applied for part-time work.

Bosses were swamped with applications after revealing they would hire 30,000 temps to clear the backlog of letters and parcels caused by walkouts.

By last night more than 85,000 people had already applied for the £5.95-an-hour posts.

Many of those picked will work behind security wire at five super-sorting centres being set up around the country.

A source said: "We could fill the vacancies three times over."

Scores of stand-in staff decked out in yellow bibs turned up at a secret training base in the Bristol area yesterday.

They will learn how to run an automated mail sorting system.

Others will help shift a mountain of mail. The jobs rush began in earnest ahead of a two-day national strike over modernisation plans which is due to start on Thursday.

Royal Mail will hire twice the normal number of staff in the run-up to Christmas.

The source said: "The pay is modest and the temporary jobs would normally be filled by students in need of cash for Christmas.

"But with so many out of work because of the recession, there's a scramble to get in this year."

Talks between management and unions took place yesterday to thrash out a peace deal. But angry union chiefs accused bosses of recruiting an army of strike-breakers.

Communications Workers' Union chief Billy Hayes threatened legal action. He said the decision was "stupid" and would only inflame the bitter dispute.

Mail chiefs said they would agree to go to arbitration - but only if the strike is called off.

Dutch delivery giant TNT is pressing the Government to break the Royal Mail's 375-year monopoly on post. It wants to use its army of "orange postmen" to keep mail flowing.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... z0US4aJIM2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Stormproof]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepag ... olumn.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ROYAL MAIL bosses are playing with fire over their decision to hire 30,000 temporary staff to clear the backlog caused by industrial action.

For a start, it's a red rag to the strikers and can only help to deeper entrench them against modernisation plans.

But what about us customers?

Are we just to accept that this army of untrained punters will get our post to us without problem? Are we to trust them not to open important letters, nick credit cards, steal our personal information?

Chief Executive Adam Crozier is already facing up to stacks of businesses moving over to rival firms to make sure their parcels get through.

If he then loses the trust of millions of households, neither he nor his company might recover.

[britwrit]

Ah, and how many applied last year? The story is meaningless without that figure.

[stokes11eg]

: Ha.ha.will all these people 'stampeding ' to get the job, be the same army of loafers who have spent years on the dole AVOIDING any kind of work? My goodness-and how are they all going to be vetted and checked and TRAINED for the job in three days? Best laugh I've had in ages.

[phantomshare]

They probably got the barbed wire from the Sun's Wapping plant..

[jaja]

Its all properganda to make Royal Fail look good in other words a load of BO****KS :cfo

[singingpostman]

I think the pay rate of £5.95 tells a big story of where RM want to be, be afraid be very afraid.

:mfo :cfo

[goinpostal]

I think the pay rate of £5.95 tells a big story of where RM want to be, be afraid be very afraid.

:mfo :cfo

Absolutely singingpostman is right:

"Scores of stand-in staff decked out in yellow bibs turned up at a secret training base in the Bristol area yesterday. They will learn how to run an automated mail sorting system."

Just clearing the backlog? I don't think so! This is serious and the union tops need to stop messing about in secret talks in Windsor and get on the job organising a political campaign against this (besides it makes them look like they are fiddling expenses and pisses people off, ive had a couple of pissed off members to calm today)