Tag: CWU

Royal Mail eyes last-gasp talks

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has written to conciliation service Acas, offering to meet the Communication Workers Union (CWU) ahead of a proposed strike. The company insisted it was not making any concessions, but was seeking to again explain its position.

Last week Royal Mail insisted that the organisation could not afford to improve its 2.5% pay offer, despite staff voting for strike action.

The CWU is due to set dates for a series of national walkouts.

“Royal Mail is contacting Acas, not to make any concessions in our position, but to try to explain to the union once again the very serious challenges the business now faces in an open, competitive market,” a spokesman said.

The CWU has said the strikes will go ahead unless a breakthrough is reached.

However both sides have said they are keen for fresh talks.

If a nationwide postal strike does go ahead, it would be the first since 1996.

About 77% of Royal Mail’s CWU members who took part in a ballot voted for the strike action, on a turnout of 60%.

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Royal Mail commenting on the statement from the CWU

Posted by | Jun 14, 2007 | |

On 6 March, the CWU wrote to Royal Mail setting out a series of demands which included an increase in basic pay from £323 a week to £395 in 2007, and a reduction in the working week. The demands in aggregate were equivalent to a cost to the company of just over £1 billion, equivalent to a 27% increase in basic pay.

Royal Mail today set out its position in a letter to MPs and peers, a copy of which is available in the Royal Mail Website.

Commenting on the statement from the CWU, a Royal Mail spokesman said:
“The company’s position is very simple – Royal Mail has absolutely no option but to change and modernise the business, urgently. That involves a £1.2 billion investment in the business – the opposite of the ’cost-cutting frenzy’ the union talks about and it is designed to ensure Royal Mail can compete successfully in an increasingly tough market. “We wrote to the union last week after the ballot result was announced offering to meet at any time to explain the company’s position – and we remain very willing to meet the union at any time to do so.”

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Communications Workers' Union says 1,000 postal jobs underthreat from liberalisation plans

Posted by | Jun 7, 2007 | |

Up to 1,000 jobs in Ireland could be lost if European Commission proposals to liberalise the postal market throughout Europe are implements by 2009 as planned, the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) has claimed.

More than 80 main post offices around the State were closed for an hour at lunchtime yesterday as part of a protest by the group of unions at An Post against the commission’s plans. Similar actions took place throughout Europe.

In a statement last night, the Department of Communications said the Government supported liberalisation of the postal network.

Seán McDonagh, CWU national officer, said that the introduction of the current proposals, without any safeguards, “would lead to the destruction of the universal services obligation which ensures all citizens get daily deliveries at a uniform price”.

“The commission directive in its current format would remove all protections from traditional postal operators by January 1st, 2009, but makes no provision for funding to secure a universal postal service at an affordable price to all customers wherever they live,” he said.

The trade unions at An Post fear that private operators entering the market would “cherry pick” lucrative delivery areas, leaving the company to deal with less profitable routes.

“If somebody can deliver mail just in Dublin 4 where it is highly profitable and easy to do, that is unfair competition, particularly if they do not have an obligation to deliver anywhere else,” Mr McDonagh said.

He estimated that up to 1,000 jobs could be lost in Ireland if the market liberalisation plans went ahead and that in addition conditions of employment at An Post would be eroded.

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CWU criticises Irish An Post management

Posted by | Mar 19, 2004 | |

The Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) has issued a stinging rebuke to An Post senior management following a meeting of the union’s Executive Council to discuss possible strike action.

Following a recent ballot, which delivered an overwhelming mandate for industrial action, the Executive Council met to consider the union’s next step.

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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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