Tag: Royal Mail

Hutton: strike will destroy Royal Mail

Posted by | Jul 21, 2007 | |

Postal workers have been warned by John Hutton, the new business minister, that they risk destroying the Royal Mail’s future by striking – dashing union hopes that the Government might favor their cause.

Hutton gave his warning ahead of two weeks of rolling strikes due to start on Wednesday. Royal Mail has already suffered two one-day strikes by 130,000 workers opposed to its modernization plans and its pay offer but is now proposing a series of smaller strikes on successive days.

Mail counters and cash-handling will be hit by Wednesday’s action with sorters due to strike on Thursday. The following day Britain’s busiest postal hub, at Heathrow, will close. The rolling programme means only a small group of strikers lose pay but the disruption to deliveries becomes cumulative.

Royal Mail, led by Chairman Allan Leighton, has offered a 2.5 per cent pay increase but is demanding GBP 380m of cost cuts from automation. The Communication Workers’ Union is demanding 27 per cent over five years.

Leighton says the state-owned mail service cannot afford to pay more because it is losing business to commercial rivals that pay lower wages. Some 20 per cent of post is now handled by private firms and this week’s strikes and confusion will encourage more customers to switch.

Leighton had hoped to bring the workforce onside by persuading the Government to give workers equity in Royal Mail. Hutton is standing by Labour’s manifesto commitment not to sell the business but appears willing to consider any workable plan Leighton can agree with unions.

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Harry Potter gets special delivery

Posted by | Jul 20, 2007 | |

In postal delivery centers all around the world, hundreds of small parcels marked “not to be delivered before 21 July” are being heavily guarded. The content of each package is the same: the latest novel recounting the adventures of Harry Potter.

On 21 July 2007, millions of copies of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel will go on sale in bookshops and other outlets. And for those who have already placed their order by mail, phone or Internet, it is often the postman who will deliver this long-awaited book.

In the United States, for example, USPS delivered 1.8 million books on Saturday, while in the United Kingdom Royal Mail delivered 600,000 copies; in other words, by the British operator’s reckoning, one UK household in 43 will receive the book by post. Canada Post distributed 80 000 copies. Swiss Post and France’s La Poste made also special deliveries on 21 July. Operators are pulling out all the stops to ensure that the millions of books were delivered on time.

From 2004 to 2005, the global number of ordinary parcels sent domestically and internationally rose by 11 pct, for a total of 6 billion parcels delivered annually representing 16 millions per day. It’s unusual for so many identical articles to be delivered within such a short space of time, and some postal operators have looked for innovative delivery solutions. For example, Deutsche Post, the German operator, and Swiss Post delivered the book to impatient readers shortly after midnight in 2005 (and also in 2003 in Germany).

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UK Businesses meet post chief to discuss rural pricing zone proposal

Posted by | Jul 18, 2007 | |

Chairman of the Postal Services Commission Nigel Stapleton met local businesses to discuss the Royal Mail’s controversial proposals for zonal pricing during a visit to Exeter.

The proposals, which have been submitted by the Royal Mail to Postcomm, are still being considered by the regulator.

The move would see an increase in the cost of business post to rural areas, potentially having a large effect on businesses in the area.

Domestic post would not be affected and the universal price of a first class stamp to post a letter anywhere in the country would remain.

But business post may incur different zonal charges.

Mr Stapleton said Postcomm would be ready to make a tentative decision in about a month’s time and the new pricing structure could be in place by 2008.

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Update on further strike action by the Communication Workers Union

Posted by | Jul 18, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is hugely disappointed that the Communication Workers Union has called for more damaging strike action. Strike action does not change Royal Mail’s absolute need to modernize, as all our major rivals have already done, if we are to be able to compete successfully in an increasingly challenging marketplace and continue to provide great customer service into the future.

The industrial action announced last Wednesday 18th July by the CWU amounts to a further 24 hour strike which hits different Royal Mail sites at different times. The union said similar action will also take place the following week. As before, the company has contingency arrangements in place to ensure that we can deliver the mail to our customers as quickly as possible.

The union’s stated position that it wants to cause the maximum disruption to Royal Mail, and therefore its customers, is completely at odds with its public stance of supporting the postal service – and its decision to block changes in 240 sites, as already agreed with our people locally, is at odds with its claim to be in favor of modernization.

Royal Mail has already spent months negotiating with the CWU on this year’s pay and on our need to modernize this business. Those negotiations suffered when the union pulled down the shutters on change and stopped when they withdrew and announced their intention to ballot for industrial action on our offer.

The union is also planning a further half-day of strike action at main Crown Post Office branches on Thursday 24th June morning, despite that fact that during last Monday’s half day strike only seven out of 458 Crown Post Office branches were affected, with the rest of the 14,000 strong network working as normal.

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UK post strike action to be escalated

Posted by | Jul 17, 2007 | |

Strikes by postal workers in a bitter row over pay and jobs are to be escalated, it has been announced.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will this Wednesday unveil a fresh programme of industrial action following two nationwide walk-outs in recent weeks.

The union’s executive met on Tuesday and said it had decided to escalate the level of strike action following the lack of progress during recent talks with the Royal Mail.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: “We are disappointed that the CWU has again failed to understand the realities of the tough commercial market in which Royal Mail now operates and the damage that further strike action will do to the business, its people and customers.

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