Postal strikes could affect county

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 08:00

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POSTAL strikes could wreak havoc with mail delivery in Gloucestershire in the coming days, it was claimed last night.

More than 2,500 postal workers across the Bristol area are set to take part in a series of strikes over the coming two weeks – starting tomorrow.

Workers said some mail en route to Gloucester went through the sorting process in Bristol and would be delayed.

David Wilshire, of the Communications Workers Union in Bristol, said: "A fair proportion of mail going to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and the Forest of Dean goes through Bristol and the county will be affected.

"People can expect their mail to be delayed by two or three days."

He added that people expecting important mail in the next couple of weeks would be fairly helpless.

"There is nothing people will be able to do about it," he said.

"Millions of items go to Bristol from Gloucester, and vice versa, so people can't exactly march up there and collect their mail."

In a continuing dispute about job security, pay, pensions, work rates and working hours, the first of a strikes of planned strikes is set to start at the South West Distribution Centre in Severn Beach tomorrow.

This will be followed later in the day by further strike action involving distribution and collection drivers based at the giant mail processing centre in Filton, Bristol.

Mail sorters at the Filton site will also be taking strike action from 1.30pm on Tuesday, September 1.

This will be followed later in the week by a 24-hour strike involving 19 delivery depots across the Bristol area.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We again 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."

He said customers in the GL postcode area would continue to receive deliveries of mail and collections would be unaffected.

But he added there could be problems transporting mail through the network due to the strike.

He said Royal Mail had contingencies in place – including the use of managers – to minimise the impact of the strike and to return service to normal as quickly as possible.