CWU warns of imminent peril to universal post

THE Communication Workers Union warned yesterday that Britain will lose its universal postal service within weeks if ministers allow competition plans to go ahead.

A third of the bulk-mail postal market will be opened up to competition from next month, unless regulator Postcomm shelves its plans.

Postcomm also wants to put the entire postal service at the mercy of the free market by 2006, with the barest minimum of regulation.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said:

“Postcomm has seriously overstepped the mark with these proposals.

“If implemented, they would be nothing less than a dagger to the heart of the universal service.”

A union spokesman added: “The government regulator has turned into a Frankenstein’s monster, hell-bent on destroying the very thing it was set up to protect.

“Postcomm’s latest horrific proposals sanction the cherry-picking of profitable bulk-mail services by private companies.

“These proposals are more radical than anything yet suggested by even the most rabid free-marketeer at the European commission, ” the spokesman pointed out.

The Post Office’s prices are the lowest in Europe, but management warned the government that the cost of a first-class stamp would have to rise to from 27 to 33 pence after deregulation.

Post Office bosses also admitted that the plans would mean the end of the “one price goes anywhere” service.

Director for business development Stuart Sweetman said that the regulator had “grossly underestimated” the chunk of the market represented by bulk mailings, which made up half the market rather than a third, as Postcomm had claimed.