Postal union leaders are developing plans for a series of short, sharp, targeted stoppages in mail deliveries if their members vote for strike action in the pay dispute with the Royal Mail.
The Communication Workers’ Union leadership wants to maximise the impact of strike action while minimising the potential for long-term damage to their members and RM itself.
Read MoreThe new chief executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier, has quietly removed three of the postal group’s most senior executives. Their departures, after they recently gave up some of their employment rights and signed new contracts, could lead to an embarrassing legal row.
Jerry Cope, Kevin Williams and Mick Linsell have all resigned.
The removal of the three directors could lead to legal action. Under reforms pushed through by the Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton, last year, all three signed new contracts that restricted their pay-offs to one year in the event of their departure and stopped them taking early retirement, by saying they could not draw on their pensions until they were 60.
It is understood that they have been advised that, because of the short time between them signing the new contracts and their ousting, they may have a claim against Royal Mail for bad faith.
Read MoreAn Post has once more increased its tariffs to Irish domestic customers, who will now pay 39cent or more (up to 48cent) for the collection, sorting and delivery of a simple 50g letter.
An Post has not increased its rates to foreign postal operators, who pay An Post about 26cent for the same item. Foreign postal operators can mail to the Republic for 26cent while domestic customers have to pay 39cent or more.
There is no sign that this situation will change as An Post has not, as requested by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) in April 2003, renegotiated its agreements with foreign postal operators.
Read MoreThe Italian post office will launch a new service in September in Rome. The service, which enables people to renew their passports at the post office, will be extended to the rest of the country at a later stage. Le Poste will also launch Postamat, a debit card aimed primarily at young people. Le Poste could list in 2004.
Read MoreDHL Worldwide Express intends to expand its operations in the express and logistics market in India. The company has nearly 65% of the express market in India and is growing at the rate of 35%. DHL Worldwide intends to operate out of its own facility in Delhi by Oct 2003 and is planning to set up own facilities in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Read MoreBy Thanksgiving, FedEx Ground will announce the location of its Memphis hub, president and CEO Dan Sullivan said. It is the last hub FedEx plans to build by 2005. Six more hubs are slated to be up by 2009, Sullivan said, in an expansion Pittsburgh-based FedEx Ground expects to will cost USD1 billion. This week, FedEx announced the purchase of 96 acres in rural northern Kentucky for a hub that will serve the Cincinnati area. In mid-July, it bought 115 acres in a Hagerstown, Md., business park, well outside the urban centers.
Read MoreLeading B2B carrier TNT Express has announced that it will launch new air linehaul connections between its European Hub in Liège, Belgium and the
Italian cities of Naples and Florence. This expansion brings the number of
airports served by TNT’s European Air Network to 62.
Royal Mail is today expected to publish quarterly figures showing that it is still failing to achieve the minimum performance standard for over half its service targets including first class mail. Although performance for first class mail improved slightly in the first quarter, Postwatch is concerned that having failed 80% of its performance targets last year, Royal Mail is still
falling below the minimum acceptable standard for nine of it’s fifteen services so early in the year. Meanwhile, the regulator Postcomm, which sets the targets, is currently considering what action it will take as a result of last year’s poor performance.
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