The Swedish national union of postal workers has reportedly threatened to go on strike over pay and conditions at the end of October. If the union’s demands are not met, 2,000 postal workers would reportedly walk out of their posts on 25 October 2004. According to the online news service of Radio Sweden, the negotiations were currently stalled.
Read MoreFrench state-owned postal service La Poste said it is seeking government approval to raise the price of stamps for its basic domestic and European deliveries to 0.55 eur from 0.50 currently, as of Feb 1 2005. If the increase is implemented, it will be La Poste’s second price hike since 1996. In May last year, the company raised the price of stamps to 0.50 eur from 0.46 previously.
Read MorePost Office executives are to be grilled by MPs overthe future of the 550 high street crown offices, some of which are facing closure, relocation or being taken over. Crown post offices are directly owned by the Post Office, unlike smaller sub-post offices, and lose almost Pounds 70m a year thanks to soaring rents, inefficient use of space and labour-intensive working practices. Options being considered to make the offices more commercially viable are closure, relocation to nearby but lower-cost premises, and franchising out to convenience store groups such as Londis. It would be possible to run a scaled-back post office counter from these stores, the Post Office has said. Ian Fisher, of consumer watchdog Postwatch, said crown office closures could be more controversial than the recent cuts in urban sub-post office numbers.
“Crown offices are the flagship stores within the network, they are prominently-located and heavily-used, so any change would attract a lot of interest.”
Read MoreUTi Worldwide acquires Unigistix
Read MoreEven if global courier DHL were to limit the use of noisy planes at Brussels Airport, this would not be enough to reach a deal on its planned expansion, a key regional Belgian minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday. DHL’s plans to increase flights at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport hit new obstacles earlier this month when squabbling national and regional governments closed ranks to demand that the company reduce the use of noisy intercontinental planes. “Even if DHL were to say today that it would be prepared to limit itself to four noisy MD-11 (planes) per night… the case will not yet be solved,” Yves Leterme, the prime minister of the northern Dutch-speaking Flanders region, told the daily Metro in an interview.
Read MoreOpening up parcel deliveries to competition has been a disaster for the people in remote communities who rely most heavily on them, a Liberal Democrat MP complained today. Alistair Carmichael, who represents Orkney and Shetland, called for Government action to protect the islanders from inflated charges for often almost non-existent services. And he warned that any moves to privatise the Post Office’s letter delivery service would create further problems and force more people to move to overcrowded urban areas. Party colleague Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) said it was unacceptable that state-owned Parcelforce charged islanders twice the usual rate for a service that was a day slower. He called for the firm to be made subject to the same universal service obligation as Royal Mail.
Read MoreShipping company FedEx has signed an agreement with the Bosnian postal services to open 150 branches in the Bosnian Serb half of the country, officials said Wednesday.
The contract foresees FedEx opening branches in 150 post offices in Bosnia’s Serb republic, said Milutin Pejic, the general director of the republic’s postal service.
FedEx official Faruk Sahinagic said his company would handle international shipments, while the post office would handle the fast delivery within the republic.
The agreement was signed Tuesday.
Read MoreJapan’s prime minister opened the extraordinary Diet session Tuesday with a promise to push forward structural reforms, especially with postal services.
Junichiro Koizumi also stressed the government’s desire to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and repeated his resolve to deal with the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan and settle the abduction and other issues with North Korea.
But he did not elaborate his plans to improve the pension system, the most vital election issue in July, Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Koizumi said he would submit bills to the Diet to facilitate privatization of the postal service by April 2007.
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