Union activists blamed for prolonging London mail strike
Royal Mail today apologised for the severe disruption caused to postal services in London and some surrounding areas by wildcat, unlawful and unofficial strikes.
Some Mail boxes in affected parts of London will be progressively sealed by the end of the week if the strikes continue, to prevent the build up of a massive backlog of letters with nowhere to go. Special Delivery services will no longer be accepted within strike-hit parts of London.
“We’re sorry that the disruption to customers has reached this point”, said Chief Executive Adam Crozier. “We would only seal boxes as a last resort. But the extent of the wildcat action makes it impossible to handle and store safely the millions of letters and packets that we deal with every day in London.
“This does not look like coincidence to us,” said Chief Executive Adam Crozier. “What we’re seeing is a concerted campaign, orchestrated by union activists, to try to force Royal Mail to increase its London Weighting payment over and above the existing offer. This is unofficial and unlawful. They’re cajoling postmen and women in London to strike – and they’re threatening to do the same to their colleagues across the UK, who have voted against industrial action. Royal Mail won’t be blackmailed.
“No one will gain from the current mess – postmen and women are losing wages, customers are losing their services, and the activists are heading down a dead end.”
“There’s no reason for anyone to stay out on strike. The only requests being made of those returning to work are in line with our national agreements with the union. They’re in line with return to work arrangements signed up to by the union only six weeks ago. No one is being asked to make radical changes to their job or work longer shifts. We’re not removing overtime – but we won’t reward people for striking with lots of extra overtime. There’s no come back on individuals, just a shared commitment to a modern, flexible postal service which puts customers first.”
Royal Mail has offered an increase in basic pensionable pay of 14.5% over 18 months, plus increases in inner and outer London Weighting of 8.6% and 12.6% respectively. The first stage of the pay offer has already been paid, as have the full increases in London Weighting. More than a third of the UK’s 1,400 delivery offices have already signed up for the local changes needed to pay out the rest of the money, and 25 have made the changes and are getting their pay rises.
Mr Crozier said, “Outside London, this company is moving forward – and at quite a pace. 500 offices have already rejected the stalemate the union is trying to preserve and said ‘Let us get on with it’
“The union needs to stop the strikes its activists and representatives have started, and start talking realistically about modernising mail services in London, as well as the rest of the country. The place to do that is ACAS, not the picket lines.
Ends
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