Royal Mail post workers in Bristol take strike action

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20662843" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

About 100 postal workers in south Bristol have walked out for 24 hours during one of the busiest weeks of the year for Royal Mail.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) says its members are on strike because they are being asked to do more work with fewer people.

Over 40,000 households and businesses will be affected.

Royal Mail says it is bringing in managers from across the country to prevent a backlog.

The 24-hour strike will mean there will be no deliveries by postal workers at the depot in Mead Street, Bedminster, which serves properties in the BS4 (Knowle) and BS14 (Hengrove) postcode areas, between 00:01 and 23.59 on Monday.
Bullying claims

Royal Mail collections will not be affected.

The CWU says delivery rounds have been revised, forcing too much work on the staff that work there and that some members had been bullied by managers.

David Wilshire, the union's area official, said: "Management still fail to grasp the extent of the problem they have caused and continue to bury their heads in the sand."

Royal Mail says the union has not followed the agreed disputes procedure.

In a statement, it said: "We agree with the union, the need to replan the duties within the office to ensure a sustainable operation which provides a reliable service for customers.

"We asked the union to meet with us at (the conciliation service) Acas rather than take industrial action and we regret that this offer was refused.

"Royal Mail is determined to do everything it can to maintain service to customers. We have developed contingency plans designed to keep up deliveries of our customers' festive mail."

Delays in getting post from the Bedminster sorting office began at the start of November.

Thousands of items of mail were left undelivered, which Royal Mail said was due to staff sickness, but the CWU said it was because delivery rounds were too large for workers.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Well done and good luck to all colleagues on strike in Bristol - and Kirkby for Wednesday and Thursday this week.

[turkeyboy]

as a former postie and union rep for this office i have just had a packet delievered by a royal manager, stamped across the front it clearly displays the cwu logo from the bristol branch .do you think thats the reason he jammed it into my post box,or was he just a twat

[fishtank]

do you think thats the reason he jammed it into my post box,or was he just a twat

Definitely the second,probably both.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

He is an arrogant twot, the manager that is.

However, I do like the convoluted irony of a strike breaking manager, delivering scab mail which happens to be a CWU mailing - You couldn't make it up.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Just been Tweeted

Royal Mail have now been notified of the second in series of strikes on 17 December 2012 at SEDO @CWUnews @KyeDudd