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Unions threaten new postal strike

Economy - News

Sunday, 02 March 2008

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite are balloting their members on new strike action.

The unions called on managers working for Royal Mail to reject the company's pensions plan.

In a letter to over 10,000 managers, Unite has said that Royal Mail were "asking for too much too soon", and that members were extremely disappointed that after months of consultations, little has changed from the original proposals that Royal Mail put to staff last year.

Unite national secretary, Paul Reuter, said that Royal Mail was asking for “too much to soon”.

He called its consultation “a complete sham” and said the unions had no option but to recommend that their members reject Royal Mail's pension plan.

"Royal Mail have not acknowledged their responsibility for allowing the deficit to become as large as it is. They have locked themselves into such a difficult business plan, that Royal Mail is attempting to underwrite it with our members' pensions,” Reuter said.

He urged Royal Mail to take a more reasonable approach to the issues of retirement age and future pensions provision.

“In the event that our members reject the pension plan we can not rule out industrial action. We will be co-ordinating our response with the CWU,” Reuter concluded.

Unite issued ballot papers on 29 February. The ballot will close on 14 March 2008. The union will announce the results of the ballot on 18 March 2008.

Post Office Limited (POL) has announced the franchising out of another four Crown Post Offices, costing 51 jobs and likely to result in a worse service to customers.

The Crown Offices selected for franchising are Barras Bridge (Newcastle), Airdrie (Scotland), Crosshill (Glasgow) and Newton Street (Manchester).

These announcements come in addition to the 2,500 sub-office closures, two Crown Office closures (Ludgate Circus and Essex Road in London) and privatisation of 77 Crown Offices (70 of which to WH Smiths).

The CWU said that the cull looked set to continue with a question mark hanging over the future of four London Crown Offices in Tottenham, Maida Hill, East Acton and Borough.

CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey said that the Government and Post Office Ltd had shown a complete disregard for the needs of the general public.

“The deceitful argument that closures are necessary to maintain a stable network is blown out of the water by the fact that no sooner are we informed of 2,502 closures and 77 Crown Office privatisations then a further raft of privatisations of main city centre Crown Offices is announced,” he added.

Furey called on the Government to fund the postal service as is done in France and Germany, in order to provide universal access to banking, postal and government services.

Chris Hannant, head of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said that the last set of postal strikes left businesses with no choice but to extend their range of delivery options, using private companies where possible.

“Staff at Royal Mail need to understand that they will be undermining the future of their organisation if they go out on strike again and force businesses to take their custom elsewhere,” Hannant added.

Strikes over pay, shifts and pensions in October 2007 were eventually called off after Royal Mail obtained a High Court injunction on a technicality.

Businesses across the country were severely hit by the union members' actions, as they were unable to send out invoices and reminders and could not receive cheque payments.

It is thought the strikes have cost Royal Mail in excess of £260 million at a time when the firm is already struggling to retain business customers.

The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) estimated that the postal strikes have cost the London economy an estimated £304 million.