New postal plan to break union power
New postal plan to break union power
From The Daily Mail May 26th, 2001
BY DARREN BEHAR
THE Post Office is planning a new low-cost mail service run with non-union staff as it tries to break worker power.
The move comes in the wake of the worst postal strike since 1996.
It involved 15,000 staff and lasted until Thursday.
The Post Office, which changed its na me to Consignia in January, is one of the last bastions of local union power and walkouts are common.
The organisation is becoming increasingly concerned at the damage done to its business by a wave of strikes, which have dented services and left it vulnerable to competition.
Last year, the Post Office lost 62,908 days to strikes – a rise of almost 200 per cent on 1999.
A host of competitors are expected to apply for licences to operate in Britain from next month as regulator PostComm tries to open up the market.
The Post Office is said to see a cut-price subsidiary as a way of protecting part of its business.
The service would focus on local deliveries of bulk mail for customers such as councils, utilities and government agencies. But some experts believe it could be extended to local communities.
Prices would be ‘substantially’ lower than those charged by Royal Mail –perhaps as low as 10p a letter compared with the 26p for first-class mail.
Delivery might be slower than the Post Office universal service, which guarantees collection and delivery of mail every working day.
The new service could be established in individual cities, probably those with particularly poor industrial relations such as Liverpool.
Staff would not be members of a union, although some experts warned that the unions could still sign up members at the new centres.
Consignia would have to apply for a licence to operate its the new service, which would run alongside Royal Mail’s service.
It hopes the plan could also encourage its brightest managers to stay with the firm.
Officially, Consignia denied it was considering launching the operation, but it is understood senior figures have discussed the plan.
Last year the Post Office workers were responsible for one in eight strikes in Britain.
The latest action began when 800 union members in Watford voted to stop work over changes to shift patterns. The dispute then escalated.
Staff returned to work yesterday across the country. The last went back last night in Liverpool, Manchester and Stockport.
Some 50million letters were being cleared but it could take up to two weeks to return services to normal.
