Postal union calls three-day strike

[Geezer]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3605ce3e-82eb ... abdc0.html


By James Boxell

Published: August 7 2009 03:00 | Last updated: August 7 2009 03:00

Postal union leaders have been accused of seeking to "destroy" plans to modernise the Royal Mail after they announced a national strike ballot and said thousands of workers would take industrial action from today.

Postal staff in Birmingham, Coventry, Edinburgh, London and other locations will each take 24 hours of strike action on Friday, Saturday and Monday.

The action will involve Royal Mail drivers for the first time since a national dispute in 2007, meaning cross-country mail services will be severely disrupted, which will have a knock-on effect on businesses fulfilling orders.

The postal service has warned that a recent wave of strike action - which comes as part-privatisation has stalled - could lead to a permanent loss of business, with mail volumes already declining by about 10 per cent a year.

Paul Tolhurst, the Royal Mail's operations director, said the threat of a nationwide strike and the behaviour of the Communication Workers Union "beggars belief".

Dave Ward, the CWU's deputy general secretary, said mail bosses had reneged on a 2007 agreement to work with the union on the modernisation and that they were "imposing panic-driven cuts to jobs and services. This is downsizing, not modernisation."

The national strike ballot is due in September.

Lord Mandelson, UK business secretary, who was forced to back down on the part-privatisation, said recently that the union was "essentially boycotting the agreed processes for making change in the Royal Mail".

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009