Postal workers out in force in anti-privatisation demo

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POSTAL WORKERS went to every major station in London today to give out leaflets in protest at moves to part privatise Royal Mail.

About ten postal workers from Enfield joined a hundred workers across London to protest against a move which they fear would raise prices for customers and result in thousands of job losses.

The Government has said that a part sell-off is the only way to save the beleaguered postal service which is now suffering from increased competition and reportedly has a pension deficit of nearly£6bn.

Royal Mail, which runs the Post Office network, has been publicly owned since its predecessor, the Post Office corporation, was formed in 1969.

The Government plans to sell a stake in Royal Mail to TNT which runs the Dutch postal service.

Angry postal workers today went to every major station in London handing out leaflets stating ten objections to the Government’s plans and asking the public to sign their online petition.

According to the Communication Worker’s Union, any privatisation deal would be a “signal the end of the UK’s current universal service and a further round of Post Office closures” and lead to a break up of the UK’s national integrated postal network.

They also say it is a “clear breach” of the pre-election promise made by the Labour Party to keep Royal Mail publicly owned, and would result in increased prices for customers.

Mark Dolan, the CWU representative for Enfield, was at Euston station. He said: “Most people that came past knew about it and were really supportive. A lot said we agree with what you are saying and a few people said what can we do to stop it?

Mr Dolan and colleagues took part in a strike on Saturday 9 over plans to introduce part time hours for some workers at an Edmonton Sorting Office, and said the two issues, part time work and privatisation, were linked.

He said: “In Holland 85 per cent of the workforce is part time and we fear that TNT will do the same thing over here.”

“We will be striking again in Edmonton on Saturday and we expect about a thousand postal workers in North London to join us in strikes on Saturday and on Saturday 11.”

London spokesman for CWU, Mole Mead, said that by lunchtime the number of signatures on the online petition had increased by a thousand. The total number of signatures is over 9,000.

To sign go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Royal-Mail-Sale/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;