Strike ballot after UK post talks fail
A ballot of 140,000 postmen and women will go ahead on Wednesday after talks aimed at averting a national strike ended without agreement.
The Communication Workers Union said no progress was made at a meeting with managers from postal group Consignia, held under the chairmanship of the conciliation service Acas on Tuesday.
The ballot is part of a campaign to win a 5% pay rise. Consignia has offered 2%, with the chance of a further 0.5% if quality of service targets are met.
Conciliation not confrontation is the way to resolve this issue
Royal Mail spokesman
The union’s deputy general secretary, John Keggie, said the union was campaigning for a £300 a week minimum wage by October 2003.
He compared the request with the £500 a day paid to new Consignia interim chairman Allan Leighton.
Mr Keggie claimed the offer was worth about 90p a day for postmen and women.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “We very much regret that the union is going ahead with the ballot while conciliation continues.
“We are very disappointed that the union is even contemplating threatening customers with disruption with this ballot.”
Uncertainty
The spokesman said the offer was almost three times the current rate of inflation and was worth £60m in total.
The ballot result is due early next month with strike action possible in March.
Staff at the Royal Mail already face huge uncertainty after Consignia confirmed a cost cutting programme putting up to 30,000 jobs on the line.
After announcing plans to shed up to 15% of its workforce it faced an outcry from workers and argued the plans were only speculative.
In a matter of days the industry regulator is also expected to propose that nearly a third of Consignia’s monopoly market be open to competition.
Talks will resume on Wednesday.
