Dorcan Mail staff's last-ditch plea

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 01 Sep 2009, 15:27

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A LAST minute plea to end tomorrow’s 24-hour postal strike has been issued by a union representative.

From 4am tomorrow 870 workers from Dorcan Mail Centre and a logistics depot next door are due to down tools in a dispute over pay and conditions.

But Chris Rye, branch secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), said Royal Mail could still halt the strike by 70 drivers and 800 mail centre staff.

Mr Rye said: “Royal Mail need to start sticking to national and local agreements. They need to realise they can’t just do what they want.

“If they stick to those agreements then we can get back to working together.”

Mr Rye said postal workers were upset to have been put in a position where they felt there was no option but to strike.

“When you are facing a situation where you are going to lose money and maybe jobs anyway you are left with no choice,” he said.

“No one wants to go out on strike, especially in the recession when it is hard enough to get by as it is.

“But Royal Mail have left us no option.”

Unless the company was willing to sit down with the unions and give assurances that conditions would improve for workers further strikes cannot be ruled out, according to Mr Rye.

A 48-hour walkout by delivery drivers at the Wheatstone Road depot is scheduled to go ahead on Monday, September 7, and Tuesday, September 8.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Royal Mail is getting on with modernisation in an entirely fair and reasonable way which is completely in line with our existing agreement with the union on flexible working practices.

“The company has already condemned the CWU both 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 for its threat of a national ballot demanding strikes even in those offices which have already successfully completed the changes.”