Post Office fears wildcat strikes at sorting offices

Post Office fears wildcat strikes at sorting offices
From The Independent May 23rd, 2001

Barrie Clement Labour Editor POST OFFICE management last night feared wildcat strikes by more than
6,500 postal workers at six sorting offices would spread throughout Britain. The unofficial industrial action yesterday by employees who have the
reputation of being the country’s most militant workers, halted deliveries and
collections in south and east London, Watford, Liverpool, Stockport and
Chester. A management spokesman said: “There is no sign of the dispute ending.
In fact, the atmosphere is quite fragile and it could spread to the rest of
the country.” Union sources said that by noon today, staff in all London’s
main sorting centres would be out on strike. The conflict was prompted by management attempts to divert mail away
from the Watford sorting centre where staff were on an official 24-hour strike
over attempts to introduce “flexible” working procedures. Employees in Liverpool walked out because they were expected to send
letters and packages to other centres to get round the Watford stoppage. Staff
at other offices followed suit, disrupting services to millions of homes and
businesses. Mick Linsell, Royal Mail’s managing director of service delivery,
said: “It is totally unacceptable that union members are attempting to hold
customers to ransom by denying them a service.” He said it was “particularly disappointing” when an independent
review, supported by the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers’ Union, had
been asked to assess the present “unstable” level of industrial relations.
“Why can’t the strikers make their case to the independent review team?” Mr
Linsell said. Employees have been warned that they could face wholesale redundancies
by the new postal regulator if they continued to take industrial action. John Keggie, the deputy general secretary of the Communication
Workers’ Union, said: “What we need is national level negotiations. We do not
need senior managers issuing statements condemning postal workers as
`militants’ and `wild-cats’. Instead, they should sit down with national union
officials and hammer out a solution to the dispute.” Mr Keggie blamed the board of Consignia, the parent company of the
Royal Mail, for attempting to change the industry overnight because of the new
commercial freedom. Peter Carr, the chairman of Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for
postal services, said: “Millions of customers will have their postal services
affected. The strike will cause real problems for businesses and individuals” Letters, Review, page 2 Caption: John Keggie: Appealed to management to join talks Copyright: Independent Newspapers(UK) LimitedIND
EPENDENT, 23rd May 2001