Crowds show support for posties as RM threaten to close a DO

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Crowds show support for posties as Royal Mail threaten to close Whitstable delivery office

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Crowds-supp ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



POSTIES were greeted with cheers and songs of support as they left the threatened Royal Mail delivery office in Cromwell Street, Whitstable, for work on Monday morning.

More than 50 members of the public gathered on the pavement outside the building in support of National Postal Workers Day.

They sang new words to songs like Elvis Presley's Return To Sender and the Carpenters' Please Mr Postman and cheered as workers and vans left on their rounds.

They were also showing their support for workers' opposition to plans to sell off the centre and move staff to Canterbury.

Organiser Julie Wassmer warned: "The move will add to the chaos at the Canterbury delivery office in Military Road."

Staff from Herne Bay have just moved there after their own depot was shut.

Whitstable staff held a ballot on Friday about voting on industrial action. They say Royal Mail has not held local consultations about the move.

The result of the ballot was expected on Thursday. Staff then have 28 days to decide what to do, if anything. There is no strike threat before Christmas.

Miss Wassmer, of Cromwell Road, said: "National Postal Workers Day allowed us to show our appreciation for our posties. Hopefully it will have boosted morale, which was at rock bottom.

"Unfortunately, it won't prevent customers like us from having to make a round trip of 16 miles to pick up undelivered mail, should the move go ahead.

"It is already pandemonium at the Canterbury office. This move is lunacy. It would make more sense to amalgamate Whitstable and Herne Bay staff."

Royal Mail spokeswoman Sally Hopkins said postal workers had been consulted in 2010 and insisted that the closure of the Whitstable delivery office and moving work to Canterbury is the second phase of the changes.

In the first phase, all sorting facilities moved to a super sorting office in Rochester.

But Whitstable postman Chris Stone says those talks did not include the Whitstable closure.

He said: "It was brilliant to see so much support on Monday. The crowd cheered every time a postman or woman left on their bike or in a van. It certainly buoyed the staff up.

"We have had management in to talk to us but they could not explain why they are spending money on a move which will cause more havoc and chaos."

He said staff had been offered money up front to cover extra mileage to work for the first three years.

He added: "That is tempting to some. But this dispute is not about our working conditions or pay.

"Uniquely, this is about workers saying this move will be worse for our customers in Whitstable. I don't think managers had come across that before."

[chooch]

AWESOME !!

[LinChong]

Nice one.

The public need to get the message that the Government are bribing senior managers in Royal Mail Group to take away a service that the public wants. The public don't want the service to decline and they don't want good jobs cut to part time minimum wage jobs.