Tag: Royal Mail

UK Ministers hail post strike deal

Posted by | Oct 13, 2007 | |

The government has welcomed a deal which could lead to an end to strike action by postal workers.

The agreement between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers’ Union is still to be ratified and details have not yet been announced.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform described the development as “significant progress”.

Royal Mail said unofficial strikes were continuing at about 10 delivery offices in London and 20 in Liverpool.

The deal was ratified by Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier, Communication Workers’ Union general secretary Billy Hayes and his deputy Dave Ward, and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

If the terms reached after marathon talks at the TUC are supported by the union’s executive on Monday, the deal is likely to be put to the vote by the CWU’s 130,000 members.

It is hoped the resolution will bring to an end the long-running row over Royal Mail’s modernisation plans, which union officials had feared would see 40,000 jobs lost.

Royal Mail has been granted an injunction to stop CWU members at sorting centers and delivery offices striking next week.

But the injunction did not apply to all parts of the Royal Mail, and in the wake of Friday’s agreement it was not clear whether some groups, such as drivers, would take part in the walkouts.

Workers who had been staging unofficial strikes in east London and parts of Scotland have returned.

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UK users turning to fax machines and scanners to beat Royal Mail action

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Fax machines, scanners and online fax-to-email services have seen increased sales and usage as UK users try to beat the postal strike.

PC World and Currys reported that fax machine sales are up 25 per cent, and scanner sales 20 per cent, since the dispute began.

Online service Efax said that it had witnessed increases of “around 15 per cent” during the strike period.

“We have seen a run on faxes and scanners this week as customers have been flocking to buy them,” said Niall O’Keeffe, marketing director at PC World.

“We thought that faxes were heading for extinction with the advent of broadband, but the recent industrial action has caused us to think twice.”

Paul Geoghegan, general manager of finance at Efax, claimed that his company had also benefited during the industrial action at Royal Mail.

“There is not a uniform increase across the UK but initial figures show it’s between 12 and 20 per cent, so it probably works out around 15 per cent,” he said.

As well as running its own service, Efax handles the fax-to-email service for ‘on demand’ fax solutions provider YAC.

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Royal Mail strikes

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Royal Mail postal workers began the first of two 48-hour strikes on Thursday 4 October. The Communication Workers Union, which represents 130,000 members of staff at the UK’s main postal service, opposes modernization plans, which it claims will result in the loss of over 40,000 jobs, longer shifts and a paltry pay packet for their members, who are already treated like slaves, says CWU Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward. The second 48-hour strike started last Monday, with further stoppages expected by mail centre and airport staff early next week. The CWU says it will embark on a rolling programme of strikes from 15 October until the dispute is resolved. According to The Sunday Telegraph, although the immediate cost of the strikes to Royal Mail will be £50m-£60m, it could eventually cost the company up to £260m.

Since the liberalisation of the postal market in 2006, 17 other companies have started delivering post alongside Royal Mail. They have already taken 40 pct of the lucrative corporate mail market and have won Government contracts from the main postal service. Royal Mail claims the failure to restructure has also cost it a recent £8m deal with Amazon, the online retailer. According to Royal Mail Chairman Allan Leighton on a recent edition of Sky News, its rivals in the postal market are 40 pct more efficient; the Royal Mail has yet to move to fully automated letter sorting, for instance. John Hutton, the minister responsible for the Royal Mail, says that “there’s no future for the business if it’s locked into the perennial cycle of industrial action… It is going to lose market share.” Couriergram, the UK-wide telegraph service, has already taken a third more business since the strike started.

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High Court outlaws Royal Mail postal strikes

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

A High Court judge this evening granted an injunction by Royal Mail to block more strikes on Monday and Tuesday as its long-running dispute with the main postal union became increasingly bitter.

The postal group went to the High Court today for an injunction to stop fresh official strikes as illegal wildcat action spread to about 60 operations, involving more than 4,000 employees.

On Wednesday, when four days of official national strikes ended, wildcat walkouts began at 24 Royal Mail centers in protest at new shift patterns.

Today the unofficial action hit Edinburgh and Grangemouth along with the previously affected areas of south and east London and Liverpool. The wildcat action is halting work at major mail sorting centers and delivery operations, leaving some areas without post for more than a week.

Royal Mail has now lost more than one million working days to strikes since the Communication Workers Union began industrial action in July. The dispute – one of the worst in the organisation’s history – is over pay, pensions, job cuts and working patterns. It is Royal Mail’s demand for greater flexibility in working hours that is causing the biggest problem for settling the dispute.

Talks continue between the union and Royal Mail at the TUC, chaired by the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. The TUC has now hosted more than a week of virtually round-the-clock talks.

Royal Mail’s injunction claims that the union had given flawed notification of the strikes. Although the union gave notice within the proper timeframe of a week, proper notification also requires that every workplace affected is properly detailed. Royal Mail’s solicitors provided a 15-page petition to the High Court saying that the notification was not filed properly.

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Small business is big loser in UK postal strike

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Small businesses are one of the biggest losers in the on-going postal strike, industry leaders said.

As the long-running dispute rumbles on, with postal workers staging a third day of unofficial strike action, the Federation of Small Businesses said its members were being badly affected.

Spokesman Simon Briault said a whole range of businesses, from building and plumbing firms to mail order companies were being hit. The federation said 94 pct of its members exclusively use the Royal Mail – many to send cheques and invoices through the post.

‘The other 6 pct who use alternative mail carriers often rely on the Royal Mail for that last mile,’ Mr Briault said.

In a survey on postal services carried out by the federation, 88 pct of respondents said they send post every day, while 69 pct said they send invoices through the post. The federation said business mail constitutes 87 pct of mail sent and the small business dependence on the postal system in the UK should not be underestimated.

Mr Briault said a lot of small businesses still used cheques to do business and these were being delayed in the post. He added: ‘When that is disrupted it has a direct impact on cashflow. Small business don’t have big profit margins.

‘They have to borrow more money from the bank which results in them paying more interest charges. Small business contribute 50 pct to the GDP. This postal strike is a massive issue.

Talks aimed at resolving the long-running dispute will resume later today in a bid to avert a fresh round of official strikes called by the Communication Workers Union from next Monday. Up to 130,000 union members have held two 48-hour strikes in the past week which crippled mail deliveries across the country.

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