Swedish postal workers threaten strike action

The Swedish national union of postal workers has reportedly threatened to go on strike over pay and conditions at the end of October.

If the union’s demands are not met, 2,000 postal workers would reportedly walk out of their posts on 25 October 2004.

According to the online news service of Radio Sweden, the negotiations were currently stalled.

Published: 15:47 21.10.2004 GMT+2 /HUGIN /Source: Posten AB

Briefing: SEKO sets strike date

Seko, the Union of Service and Communication Employees, has set a strike date to begin at three Stockholm area postal terminals on Monday, October 25 at 4pm. Posten has announced that a strike would cause major and widespread operational disturbances.

In the event that talks with Seko break down, Posten believes a strike would have the following consequences.

Letter Mail
At present Posten does not predict disturbances to the distribution of local letter mail (collection and delivery in the same region and city). This assessment DOES NOT, however, include the greater Stockholm area (ZIP-codes 10-19), where all mail delivery (letters, parcels and unaddressed direct mail) will come to a halt.
In addition to Stockholm, the cities of Norrköping, Nyköping and Gotland will be affected to a greater extent than those in other areas of the country. (ZIP-codes 60-62)
Under the above-cited circumstances, First-Class Mail presented later than on Sunday, October 24 as well as Economy Mail presented on or after Thursday, October 21 will not be delivered to end-recipients.
All domestic and international mail distribution will be affected to varying degrees, as reloading points in Stockholm will not be functioning at normal capacity. Newspaper distribution, too, will be affected to some degree.

Unaddressed Direct Mail
Unaddressed Direct Mail – both Exclusive and Standard – will be affected to varying degrees, as reloading points in Stockholm will not be functioning at normal capacity.

Parcels
Parcel delivery service will be maintained to a certain extent, apart from mail order packages as well as parcels mailed to and from the greater Stockholm area (ZIP-codes 10-19) and to and from Uppsala, Norrtälje and Gotland (ZIP-codes 62 and 74-76).

E-brev (E-letter)
All e-letter activities will be halted, preventing recipients from being alerted to the arrival of mail order parcels.

Svensk Adressändring will not be able to process new address changes.

Svensk Kassaservice (Swedish Cashier Service)
A strike would prevent Svensk Kassaservice from processing postal and bank giro payments.

A strike would prevent recipients from receiving Postgirot and Bankgirot payment slips.

A strike would prevent Svensk Kassaservice from processing accounting envelopes. As such, corrections and inquiries cannot be performed on processed transactions.

A strike would prevent the delivery of domestic money orders.

For more information, please contact:
Posten’s Press Service, [email protected], phone +46 8-23 10 10