Tag: France

Plans to close more than half of France’s post offices as part of a reform of the state-owned postal service has provoked fury.

Postal workers, unions and provincial mayors protested as it emerged that 6,000 of the 11,500 offices, mostly in rural areas, are to be closed.

Their business will be transferred to local shops at an estimated cost of 10,000 jobs.

The plans to reform La Poste, renowned as the most generously resourced postal service in Europe, were discreetly drawn up by managers over the summer.

Jacques Pernoud, the mayor of La Biolle in Alpine Savoie region, was outraged. “The post office doesn’t give a damn,” he said. “The public service is in danger.”

La Poste, the French national postal operator, and representatives from the country’s press companies yesterday signed a new four-year contract following 18 months of negotiations under the aegis of the state. For the state, the objectives of the agreement are to assure the equality of all publications and readers in postal distribution, as well as press plurality. For the press, the objectives are the provision of a quality delivery service to customers and a reasonably-priced subscription service. La Poste must prepare for the complete deregulation of the postal market in 2009.

French postal operator La Poste is to open the first of a series of new, highly mechanised sorting centres in the eastern region of Lorraine in 2007. The new centre, based on what has been dubbed the most modern sorting technology in Europe, will be placed midway between Metz and Nancy to replace existing sorting centres in those two cities.