Tag: UK

Milkmen were preparing to deliver thousands of letters as Royal Mail chiefs warned that wildcat post strikes could “destroy” the loss-making company.

Executives at Express Dairies have confirmed they are preparing to deliver mail on 3,500 milk rounds to help businesses desperate to get letters and bills out to customers.

However, the milkmen are not able to collect or sort mail posted in letter boxes – and will not be used to clear the backlog in Royal Mail depots.

A deal to end a strike by British postal workers has been agreed between the Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union.

Talks resumed on Sunday 2nd November between Royal Mail and labour union leaders to end a growing wildcat strike that has thrown postal services in Britain into disarray.

The government pleaded with both sides in the postal strike to resolve the conflict before serious damage was done to the economy. Patricia Hewitt, the Trade Secretary, said that both the Royal Mail and the wildcat strikers, whose unofficial action has brought the postal system to a halt, should resolve their dispute. “Customers are losing their mail, postal workers are losing their pay, and neither megaphone diplomacy nor unofficial action will solve the problem,” she said.

Royal Mail’s lawyers are gathering evidence to launch a court challenge against the postal union blamed for encouraging unofficial walkouts across the country.

Following pressure from business, which is worried about the wider impact of the nine-day dispute, company managers received positive legal advice on the strength of their case.

The company has decided to wait before pulling together witness statements and documents, which allegedly prove the secret involvement of union militants. Court action would be one of the most significant tests of Thatcherite union legislation since the Royal Mail successfully challenged in court the Communication Workers Union’s right to hold strikes without a ballot in 1990.