Postal workers call one-day strike
Postal workers say they will bring mail services to a halt on May 8 in a one-day strike to protest against plans to scrap the “second post” delivery as part of a company-wide shake-up.
The union argues that the move to provide just one mail delivery a day and increase the size of each postal worker’s round will cost jobs, lead to a worse service for customers and make the gap between tea breaks too long.
The rebranded post office Consignia said the strike — the first for five years — would be “financial suicide”. Struggling to cope with the opening of its markets to competition, Consignia has already announced it will axe 15,000 jobs and close 3,000 post offices.
Talks between Consignia and communications workers union CWU were to be held on Wednesday and again on Friday through the government’s arbitration service ACAS.
“We don’t want this strike but the employer is holding a gun to our head,” said John Keggie, CWU deputy general secretary.
Consignia is under pressure from the government regulator, its staff and competitors like Hays, Business Post Group and TPG. Losing over one million pounds a day, the company is trying to cut a billion pounds of costs.
Plans to shut post offices and lay off workers have drawn howls of union protest, but it was Consignia’s insistence on introducing one single four-hour delivery round, effectively getting rid of the second post, that was the final straw.
At the moment, post workers deliver letters to homes in two delivery rounds, each of 2-1/2 hours.
Consignia has made a 6.9 percent pay rise for postal workers conditional on introduction of the new rosters. The union wants Consignia to look at alternatives to the four-hour round.
“At a time when the business is losing money, the regulator is considering the competition framework, and customers are considering whether to use the competition, any approach other than mediation would be financial suicide,” a Consignia spokeswoman said of the strike threat.
“Industrial action will lead to fewer customers and therefore even greater job losses, for which the union would have to bear full responsibility.”
