A week of postal strikes

Approximately 130,000 postal workers are taking part in a 2-day strike over pay, jobs and pensions. The strike started yesterday at midday and will run until Saturday. Furthermore, another 48-hour walkout is scheduled from Monday according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The long weekend strike will stop the delivery of 380 million letters and Britain will be faced with nearly a week without mail deliveries.

In the last few months, postal workers have staged 4 strikes after rejecting a 2.5% pay offer and Royal Mail’s modernisation plans, which the CWU says would result in 40,000 job losses.

A rolling programme of strikes will commence on October 15 staged by the union and employees from different Royal Mail departments will take it in turns to hold 24-hour strikes until the dispute is settled.

There are rumours that Prime Minister Gordon Brown may call a general election for November 1, increasing the prospect that postal voting could be disrupted if the strike action persists. However, currently, the government has said that it will not become involved in the dispute.

A spokesman for the Department for Business said that Royal Mail needs to modernise to compete in a liberalised postal services market. Management and unions must work together to achieve this and to meet the challenges of a liberalised market.

A Royal Mail spokesman said it had been in talks with the union about its grievances for over 6 months and has asked customers not to post items during the strike.

The Forum of Private Business warned that lost orders caused by disrupted post would hit small companies harder than larger ones because the money involved would be more significant for them.

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