The UK national postal strike that no one noticed
THE THREAT of a national postal strike may have been one of the most feared industrial disputes in recent months, raising the prospect of sealed postboxes and backlogs of mail, but it has already happened — and no one noticed.
Postal union representatives last week went on strike for all of 15 minutes. The Communication Workers Union held the mini-strike last Tuesday to keep its options open for future action amid pay talks that began last autumn and, despite an apparent settlement a few weeks ago, still drag on.
Under the complicated rules that govern the union, without the mini-strike that wasn’t, the CWU would have lost its strike mandate and have had to re-ballot its members. The 15-minute action means that mandate is preserved because industrial action has started.
John Keggie, CWU deputy general secretary, said that another option of a 24-hour strike had been ruled out because Consignia had threatened to take a tough line over Parcelforce’s future and compulsory redundancies amid its huge job-loss programme if strike action were prolonged.
Consignia last night denied weekend reports that it would, within three weeks, announce 26,000 job losses, after the 15,000 declared last week. But the company would not rule out further cuts, saying there was “more work to be done” to achieve cost-reduction targets.
Consignia confirmed holding talks with TPG, the Dutch postal service, over a joint venture, but both sides said these had now ended. TPG said it was still seeking a “major presence” in the UK mail market, the second biggest in Europe.
