Postal strikes continue to cause chaos

Nov 1 2009 by Sam Wood, Sunday Sun

WITH seemingly no end in sight in the postal dispute reporter Sam Wood looks at the issues behind the strikes and the possibility of the disagreement stretching into the festive period.

New walkouts planned as support holds

TENS of thousands of postal workers yesterday "solidly supported" a fresh strike, crippling mail deliveries across the UK in the latest wave of walkouts to hit the Royal Mail.

Members of the Communication Workers Union braved pouring rain to mount picket lines outside mail centres on the third consecutive day of industrial action in a bitter row over jobs, pay and modernisation.

A union official said the new stoppage was again backed solidly by workers, and insisted members of the public were still giving strong support to the postmen and women.

Around 77,000 delivery and collection staff were on strike for 24 hours from yesterday morning.

Further action is planned in the next week unless marathon talks between the two sides produce a breakthrough.

A third wave of 24-hour national walkouts are planned for this week involving all its 121,000 postal members, although frantic efforts were continuing over the weekend to find a peace deal.

Negotiators from the union and the company were considering a series of proposals drawn up during talks last week chaired by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

The two sides are aiming to resume negotiations early next week and said they planned to make no comment this weekend on the prospects of finding an agreement.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: "It is not necessary for this strike to take place and the union remains focused on reaching an agreement. We hope that Royal Mail will also now be equally focused.

"CWU is determined to reach an agreement or make enough progress to call off strike action next week."

Mark Higson, managing director of Royal Mail, yesterday condemned the union for calling more strikes, warning it would "distract" from the peace efforts.

He said: "The CWU’s irresponsible behaviour underlines just how muddled and confused the thinking of the union is - and how little it really cares about customers or the future of the UK postal service.

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU’s next planned action."

The Royal Mail last night claimed 25 per cent of its delivery workers had turned up for duty yesterday morning, despite the strike.

The figure was higher than the 20 per cent of people who worked during last week’s walkout by delivery employees, a spokeswoman said.

The company said the delivery staff who turned up to work during the strike meant some households received their mail as usual.

Robert Hammond, of Consumer Focus, said the strikes were causing increasing damage to business and the public.

He said: "The longer the strike goes on the more it’s going to hurt. A big worry is the damage the strikes are having on Royal Mail’s customers, especially those forced to use alternative forms of delivery."