POST STRIKERS DELAY MILLIONS OF LETTERS

POST STRIKERS DELAY MILLIONS OF LETTERS
From The Daily Mail May 23rd, 2001

BY DARREN BEHAR MAIL deliveries were in chaos last night as wildcat strikes spread across the
country. The disputes will delay millions of letters and packages on their way to
families and businesses. Already some five million items are waiting to be delivered in Watford, where
the illegal strikes against working conditions began on Friday. At least ten major sorting and delivery offices have been hit, including
Manchester, Liverpool, North Wales, Stockport and Chester. Strikes at depots in Nine Elms, Watford and Whitechapel have hit deliveries in
large parts of south, east and north London. Some workers claimed that almost half the country is affected – and although
Royal Mail chiefs deny this, they fear the action could spread further. The action is a further blow to the Post Office, Royal Mail's parent company,
which was renamed Consignia this year. Its bosses are already under fire over the controversial rebranding and for
providing a poor service. The company is also facing the prospect of widespread
competition after new laws ended its monopoly. Consignia and consumer groups condemned the walkouts as unacceptable and
irresponsible. Peter Carr, chairman of the watchdog body Postwatch, said: 'It is time that
workers recognized that this type of behaviour does nothing to an already deteriorating service. Postal workers cannot continue to deprive customers of
the universal postal service and expect to get away with it. They risk forcing
customers away. 'Millions of customers will have their postal services affected by the strike.
Some of that mail will be very important tickets, invitations, job application
forms, passports and so on. The strike will cause real problems for business
and individuals.' A Daily Mail investigation recently revealed that more than 14million letters
of the 80million posted each day arrive late – or not at all. Much of that disruption is due to wildcat strikes by postal workers. Short
local strikes are happening somewhere almost every day of the week. Astonishingly, action by postal workers accounts for more than half the UK's
annual total of strikes. About 6,000 workers have joined the latest action and there is no sign that it
is likely to end soon. It started when 800 union members at Watford stopped work in a dispute over
changes to working patterns, even though similar shift systems have already
been introduced in many parts of the country without action. Postal staff in Liverpool refused to handle mail diverted from Watford and
started taking wildcat action in support. The Liverpool walkout was followed by
action in Stockport, Chester and east and south London. Mick Linsell, Royal Mail's managing director, said: 'We are very sorry for the
delays to our customers' mail. It is totally unacceptable that union members
are attempting to hold customers to ransom by denying them service.' He said it was 'particularly disappointing' that workers had gone on strike
when an independent team had recently been appointed to review industrial
relations. The review, supported by the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union,
has been asked to assess the present 'unstable' level of industrial relations. John Keggie, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said: 'What we need is
national level negotiations. We do not need senior managers issuing statements
condemning postal workers as militants and wildcats.' [email protected] MAIL, 23rd May 2001