Postal strike to hit NG3

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POSTAL workers are to go on strike, affecting homes and businesses throughout the east of the city.

Delivery and collection staff will not turn up to work at the Huntingdon Street sorting office on Monday over a dispute about new working conditions and job cuts.

Their strike will affect deliveries to Mapperley, St Ann's and areas with an NG3 postcode.

The sorting office itself will remain open to the public for collecting parcels.

Simon Edmunds is branch secretary for the Nottingham and District Communication Workers' Union which represents delivery staff who work for Royal Mail.

He said: "The business needs to get a national agreement to meet the new demands we are facing instead of bringing in changes without agreement from the union and cutting jobs which will have an impact on the quality of service for the customer."

The postal industry faces different demands nowadays with fewer letters being sent and more packages delivered because of online shopping.

The CWU says a new strategy must adapt to customers' needs, and accuses Royal Mail of being "panic driven".

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Having met the union more than 50 times in recent months, it is increasingly clear that the CWU refuses to believe that mail volumes are declining despite the clear evidence of this in the UK and in every other postal market around the world.

"We condemn the CWU for striking locally over much-needed modernisation and change which has already been successfully implemented by our people in the majority of offices around the UK and is working well."

"The changes are all covered by the 2007 Agreement on Pay and Modernisation, which the CWU leadership signed in the presence of the TUC but which they are now reneging on in a way that clearly hurts our customers and our people and damages Royal Mail.

"The union claims to support modernisation, yet acts to destroy it.

"We are developing contingency plans for customers in the NG1 and NG3 postcode areas but there will unfortunately be disruption to deliveries and collections."

Customers who need more information are advised to visit

http://www.royalmail.com/serviceupdates" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or call customer services on 08457 740 740.