Union leaders have accused the Prime Minister of refusing to meet them to discuss controversial plans to switch mail deliveries from rail to road.
A delegation of MPs is due to meet Tony Blair next week to discuss the issue, but union leaders claimed they had been snubbed.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, said the door was always open to business leaders, but had been “slammed in the faces” of unions.
Read MorePost Office workers poised on the brink of strike action were urged by their new boss today not to “kill the company through greed”.
Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier told The Daily Telegraph that he feared there would be a strike which would not only be bad news for customers, but workers too.
Read MoreA new study into customer satisfaction with An Post has added to the misery at the State owned postal company.
A survey carried out for the latest ComReg Quarterly Report shows that businesses are increasingly unhappy with the level of service offered by An Post.
The Commission said the survey highlights “a number of worrying trends”.
The news comes just days after the company said it would have to cut 500 jobs and would report a loss of EUR50m this year after losing more than EUR70m in 2002. Just a few months ago, An Post was targeting a full year profit of EUR1m.
Read MoreFull restructuring of Poczta Polska (PP), the national post office, will not be finished before Poland’s EU entry, leaving the giant vulnerable to competition. A new Post Act is needed to transform the company into a holding providing a range of postal, logistic, financial and Internet services. After EU entry, PP will lose exclusivity rights for delivery of parcels with weight in the range of 350-2000g and the market will be fully liberalised in 2009. Fearing competition from foreign postal firms, which are already present on the Polish market through subsidiaries offering courier services, PP wants to diversify and more rationally manage its assets.
Read MoreThe Royal Mail has turned down the offer of further talks to avert the first national postal strike for seven years, after rebutting a claim by the main postal workers’ union, the CWU, that it had exaggerated financial losses to justify shedding 30,000 jobs and limiting pay increases for 160,000 staff.
Dave Ward, the CWU deputy leader, alleged that the company’s annual accounts, showing a pre-tax loss of GBP611m, included a GBP470m exceptional charge for the cost of redundancies; but only 2,000 jobs at most had gone, compared with the 16,000 claimed by Royal Mail. The core letters business had made a GBP66m profit.
Mr Ward, who is organising the strike ballot due to end on September 17, suggested that the real financial gap between the company and the union, which is claiming an upfront 8% pay rise, could be bridged, and urged the Commons trade and industry committee to order an immediate inquiry into the group’s accounts.
Read MoreThe Royal Mail has been accused of exaggerating its losses to justify plans to make 30,000 workers redundant.
Dave Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said the organisation was underplaying its profitability because it also wanted to minimise an “upfront” pay rise. The union is calling for a parliamentary inquiry.
A ballot of 160,000 postal workers is expected to show next week a big majority in favour of industrial action.
Mr Ward said that although the company’s overall losses were GBP611m this year, the “core” letters business recorded a profit of GBP66m.
Read MoreTibbett & Britten Group plc has launched a bid to acquire a majority interest in the German reverse logistics specialist Vfw AG, based in Koln.
Tibbett & Britten has agreed to purchase the 27.5% stake held by the Chief Executive, Clemens Reif, and his family in the unlisted company, subject to acceptance of a general offer by at least a further 55% of the shareholders. The general offer opened on 4 September and will remain open until 7 October.
Read MoreA Zurich press report attributed to an unnamed “well-informed source” that LH is on the verge of presenting a formal takeover proposal for financially instable Swiss.
Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag claimed the Lufthansa offer depended on the Swiss company managing to secure Sfr500m ($352m from its shareholders. The biggest owners of Swiss are the Swiss federal government (20.4%), UBS (10.4%), Canton Zurich (10.2%) and Credit Suisse Group (10%).
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