More Postal Disruption Ahead
Small Business News – 10th October 2007
Now that postal workers are returning to work after their two 48 hour strikes, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and the Royal Mail have so far failed to break the deadlock on an agreement over pay & conditions.
As the postal system slowly deals with the backlog of mail that has built up over 4 days of striking, it seems that there will be further disruption to postal services before the service has the chance to resume normallity.
The latest round of strikes are proposing to see different departments walk out with only 24 hours of industrial action each in order to stagger the disruption.
The following dates of industrial action are planned, with the starting times of the 24 hour strike periods:
- 15 October, 18:00 BST
Mail sorting offices and airports - 16 October, 03:00BST
Deliveries & separate collection hubs - 17 October, 12:00BST
Royal Mail drivers - 18 October, 12:00BST
Mechanised data-entry centres - 18 October, 14:00BST
International/Heathrow World Distribution Centre
As many as 130,000 CWU members have been striking over Royal Mail’s proposed modernisation strategy which the union believes will lead to 40,000 job losses.
Talks have apparently made progress but there has been no agreement. The Royal Mail had offered a 6.9% pay rise over two years but linked this rise with, among other things, a decrease in pension benefits.
