Further postal strikes planned by Bristol

[POSTMAN]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20946650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Postal workers at a delivery office in south Bristol are planning more strikes in a workload dispute.

The Bedminster depot workers held two 24-hour strikes in December because, they say, they are being asked to do more work with fewer people.

A series of talks between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail have so far proven unsuccessful.

Conciliation service Acas is involved in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

Bristol CWU area official David Wilshire said: "The CWU and Acas have offered Royal Mail the chance of further talks next week although a positive response has yet to be received."

Mr Wilshire said if the dispute was not resolved at Acas, there would be further strikes in the "not too distant future".

About 100 people work at the Mead street depot which serves properties in the BS4 (Knowle) and BS14 (Hengrove) postcode areas.

Royal Mail was unavailable for comment.

[oypostie]

Royal Mail was unavailable for comment

Has our Sal not finished her Christmas break yet then ?

[Red Robbo]

Are they still within the law to continue strike action ?

[fishtank]

According to Dave Wilshire there are two sticking points.

“The two issues we are concerned about is there are not enough jobs in the office and we want an independent investigation into claims of bullying and harassment.”

Now this is just my opinion but i think the whole issue about workload and jobs is just a Royal Mail red herring.
The revision is by all accounts a balls up anyway so if this dispute was just about re-investing hours pressure would have been applied to management at Bristol SEDO from senior management to find a solution and have another look at the revision.
Lots of revisions have failed,many are being reassessed and some are having hours put back in so they are hardly going to let a dispute rumble on over that.

That leaves the second issue "an independent investigation into claims of bullying and harassment" as the genuine sticking point and if management are refusing to budge on that it's because they've been told from above not to budge on that.
That affects all of us because it points to a position of intransigence,not only by local management over bullying and harassment but also at boardroom level.
Again it's only my opinion but it's what it looks like to me.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Single strike days are highly unlikely to change things, especially now Xmas is over. Yes it will hurt pay packets more, but if things are so bad that a strike is seen to be the only option left to the workforce, they need to vote of two or more sucessive days of striking in one week (Friday and Saturday would be good, the managers from local deopts will love trying to fill the gap instead of starting their weekend early).

[chooch]

Single strike days are highly unlikely to change things, especially now Xmas is over. Yes it will hurt pay packets more, but if things are so bad that a strike is seen to be the only option left to the workforce, they need to vote of two or more sucessive days of striking in one week (Friday and Saturday would be good, the managers from local deopts will love trying to fill the gap instead of starting their weekend early).

and those who 'choose not to vote' or whatever will be tempted to take-off time, pull a sickie (as if!) and take down numbers too..

Me? simplistic World View?