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Threatened post strike called off

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

A postal strike which would have thrown Bridgwater’s mail into chaos this week was called off at the eleventh hour on Wednesday.

Last minute talks between bosses from the Communication Workers’ Union and Royal Mail finally resolved an overtime payment dispute which threatened to wreak havoc at the Friarn Street sorting office.

Staff at the office agreed in a ballot at 6am on Wednesday to drop the strike threat, which was due to begin on Wednesday night.

If the action had gone ahead, mail deliveries in the Bridgwater area would have been disrupted for three days until Friday night, with managers from Royal Mail taking on some of the work.

The row had been over whether Bridgwater staff should get overtime payments for covering sickness, which Royal Mail had intended to scrap but is now reconsidering.

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Post workers' fury at parcels on milk floats

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

Express Dairies has signed a contract with leading direct marketing firm ADM and yesterday began delivering books in Liverpool from an international book club.
The scheme was piloted in Wirral when Royal Mail, then Consignia, paid milkmen to deliver parcels earlier this year.
Company bosses at the dairy now say they expect to handle over 4.5 million items over the next 12 months and are hailing the contract as a major development in their service.
But unions fear it could open the floodgates for other companies to take contracts away from traditional postmen.
Mark Walsh, area representative for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said: “We’ve argued all along that this work can be done by us.
“When the dairy in Wirral first started up, we helped them get going.
“We were involved in showing them the ropes – but now we find we’ve set them up to go against us.”
A total of around 400 jobs will be lost across Merseyside in the coming week with the closure of Parcelforce’s Bootle and Upton, Wirral, depots.

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Privatization of Jordanian postal service

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

A-Dustour newspaper quoted the Director of the Privatization Authority, Adil al-Qadhah, who provided details on the privatization of the Jordanian postal services as of April 2002. A professional committee has been established to examine the organizational structure of the postal service and to reorganize its structure. A work team has been appointed to prepare a proposed bill to separate the postal service from the Communications Ministry and to create a government company to supply postal services. A plan is being prepared to privatize postal services including the appointment of a financial advisor to aid in the process of privatization by the end of 2002.

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Mozambique International Postal Charges Rise

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

The Mozambican post office has increased its international mail charges by between 5.3 and 6.4 per cent.
As is habitual, the post office did not publicise these changes. Unlike the publicly-owned telecommunications and electricity companies, TDM and EDM, the post office never places any notices in the press advising consumers that price rises are on the way. Users only discovered them when they went to the post office, prepared to pay at the old rate, and were told that the prices had gone up. It now costs 20,000 meticais (about 83 US cents), rather than 19,000 (a rise of 5.3 per cent) to send a letter of up to 20 grams from Mozambique to any other member country of SADC (Southern African Development Community).
Sending a letter to Europe or America now costs 33,000 instead of 31,000 meticais (an increase of 6.4 per cent).
To send a newspaper or magazine weighing between 20 and 100 grams to a destination within SADC now costs 37,000 rather than 35,000 meticais, and to Europe 58,000 instead of 55,000 meticais.
This is the third increase in international mail charges in slightly more than a year. The cumulative effect has been virtually to double the cost of sending mail.

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Post in Irish Republic delayed for second day by pay dispute

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

Postal deliveries in the Irish Republic are being delayed for the second day in succession. The delays are due to industrial action by members of the Irish Postmasters’ Union.
Almost 600 postmasters and postmistresses are refusing to sort mail. They’re involved in a row over payment made for the job. Deliveries from sub-post offices have been held up for as much as two hours. A spokesman says the action will continue indefinitely.
Backlogs of undelivered post are expected to build up by the end of the week.
Both sides in the dispute say there are no plans for further negotiations.

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China's Postal Income up 8.5 PCT in Jan-June

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

China’s postal trade chalked up 24.7 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in business income in the first six months of 2002, 8.5 per cent more than the same period last year, said the State Bureau of Postal Service.
The figure accounts for 48.5 per cent of the annual income target set by the Bureau earlier this year.
The postal trade raked in 630 million yuan by providing logistics service, with a 21 per cent monthly growth in Jan-June; and 520 million yuan by providing telecom service.

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Express out to milk new postal service

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

EXPRESS Dairies said yesterday that it hoped to increase doorstep milk deliveries on the back of its new postal service.
The UK’s second largest supplier of milk and cream has won its first contract to deliver mail from businesses to homes, under the terms of a recently awarded licence from postal regulator Postcomm.
Tim Smith, executive director of the firm’s postal business, said: “There is a sense, certainly in the English conurbations, that you can’t get milk delivered to your door anymore.
“Along with the additional business we will get from doing the postal deliveries, we certainly hope to raise our profile and remind some of the lapsed users of our service that we’re still around.”
Express began delivering mail in Liverpool yesterday on behalf of ADM, a direct marketing services company. The first deliveries were books being distributed by ADM for an international book club. Further services for ADM will be launched shortly by Express in Manchester and Nottingham.
The licence granted by PostComm to Express in late July allows the firm to deliver up to 4.6 million packets and letters from businesses to homes through its network of 3,500 delivery routes across the UK in the next 12 months.

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Stinnes, under takeover bid, reports mid-year profit increase

Posted by | Aug 19, 2002 | |

Stinnes, the Schenker logistics parent group which is under a takeover bid from Deutsche Bahn, a land transport company, has posted Euro 130 million (US$128 million) in mid-year operating profit, a 2 per cent rise from the first six months of 2001.The figures are before adjustment of transfers to provisions of a stock option programme; adjusting for it, the operating profit rose by 20 per cent. External group sales decreased by 8 per cent to Euro 5.9 billion in a weak economic environment and lower prices, Stinnes said.

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