Ministers ‘sulking’ over Royal Mail in UK

Ministers have been accused of refusing to negotiate over strikes because they are “sulking” that Royal Mail has not been privatised, the BBC reports. The article continues:

The leader of the Communication Workers Union, Billy Hayes, said ministers “appeared to be on strike themselves”.

The walkouts were triggered by a row over modernisation plans.

But a spokesman for the Department for Business said: “Royal Mail has made it clear that they are willing to engage with the union.”

Members of the union have been staging a series of local 24-hour strikes in England and Northern Ireland.

They are due to continue into next week, when the union is planning to ballot its members on holding a national strike.

In June, the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, announced that plans to sell off part of Royal Mail had been delayed.

Hayes said: “There hasn’t been one government minister, at any level, talking about the strikes – which have disrupted services.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It seems to us that some government ministers are sulking because they haven’t yet managed to privatise Royal Mail.

“This is a company that they own, and they don’t seem capable of saying one single word.

“Ministers appear to be on strike themselves.”

Hayes denied the union was trying to block the modernisation of Royal Mail.

Modernisation shouldn’t mean ‘reducing services to the public’, he said.

“Royal Mail is trying to bring in institutional changes without consultation,” he added.

“There’s going to be more strikes, we’ve got a situation where Royal Mail is cutting people’s pay, taking people off duties without agreement.”

Earlier this year, the company warned it was in a “very tight financial position” and had to cut costs.

In 2008, all four parts of Royal Mail were profitable for the first time in almost two decades.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said the union was opposing the modernisation changes:

He said: “Well over 90% of our people – and more than 90% of our operational units – will be working normally this week.

“We cannot understand why the union is claiming to support modernisation when it is pursuing a policy of actively opposing the changes we need to make to ensure there is a successful future for the business, its people and its customers.”

STRIKE LOCATIONS

19 August: Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Leeds
20 August: Peterborough
21 August: Peterborough, Kings Lynn
22 August: Boston, Carrickfergus
24 August: Skegness, Huntingdon