A strike ballot of 160,000 postal workers is likely today if the union’s talks with Acas officials fail to resolve a pay dispute. Ballot papers will be sent out with results expected in mid-September unless the talks bring “radical” developments, the Communication Workers’ Union said. If industrial action is approved, it would be the first national postal strike in seven years and a blow to Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman.
Read MoreA national strike by postal workers loomed even closer after Royal Mail insisted that it would be offering no more money to staff even if union officials turned up to talks today at Acas, the conciliation service. The company’s position reinforced expectations that the first national strike in seven years was set to go ahead.
Late last week, Royal Mail invited the Communication Workers’ Union to talks at Acas, but the company said the union had not replied formally. No union official was available for comment.
Observers said Royal Mail’s assertion that it could not substantially change its offer greatly reduced the union’s incentive for further talks. The two sides met at Acas earlier this month, but no progress was made.
Read MoreIn conjunction with the referendum on whether Sweden will adopt the euro, Posten is offering postal voting at more than 1,500 voting stations across the country between August 27 and September 14. Posten has handled early voting since 1942. Postal voting has accounted for roughly one-third of the ballots cast in the previous four elections. Like the 2002 general elections, the orange hand symbol will be visibly displayed at all postal voting stations.
Read MoreDeutsche Post said Friday that it may lose 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) of sales in its domestic mail business once full European liberalization came into force, but said it would be offset by expansion into other markets. Hans-Dieter Petram, head of the Deutsche Post World Net’s mail division, said there could be a drop of 20 percent in the unit’s revenues once other companies were allowed to compete freely for postal services in Germany in the next several years. “I believe it can be maximum — at the end of the decade — round about 20 percent,” he said at an analysts’ conference in Bonn, adding that this is a “worst case scenario.”
Read MoreThe Royal Mail has made an eleventh hour attempt to avert the first national postal strike in seven years. It has invited union leaders to talks on Tuesday at Acas, the conciliation service.
Within the next few days the Communication Workers Union will ballot 160,000 postmen and women on industrial action over pay and job cuts. Dave Ward, the deputy secretary general of the CWU, is expected to use any mandate from his members to stage an all-out strike. The strike would come at a crucial time for the Royal Mail, which lost GBP600m last year and is faced with the threat of competition in the postal market.
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