Postal workers in strike ballot over 'privatisation' row

Thousands of postal workers are to be balloted on strikes in a row over the “blatant privatisation” of their jobs.

The Communication Workers Union says the threat of industrial action is aimed at stopping Consignia selling the cash handling operation to Securicor.

Voting among the workers – who deliver stamps and cash to post offices – will start at the end of the month and the ballot result will be known in mid-November.

Strike action could start at the end of next month, posing a huge threat to the finances of thousands of post offices in the run-up to the busy Christmas period.

The union’s deputy general secretary, John Keggie, complained that the workers were not offered any choice and said the planned sell-off would be resisted.

The workers feared their pay, conditions and pensions would suffer if they transferred to the private sector firm.

CWU national officer Andy Furey said: “They are public servants. If they wanted to work for a private company they could have chosen to do that, but they haven’t.

“It’s disgraceful that Consignia is playing musical chairs with their jobs. Talk about selling the family silver.

“These workers handle the lifeblood of the nation. It’s much too important an operation to just hand it over to the privateers.”

Consignia announced last month that it had accepted a bid from Securicor Cash Services for the cash handling and distribution operations under a 10 year contract with a turnover of up to £1 billion.

Story filed: 12:25 Monday 14th October 2002