Postal workers poised to launch fresh strikes

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) in areas including the Midlands, London, Yorkshire, Bristol and Northern Ireland will walk out throughout the coming week in a long-running row over jobs, pay and services.

The union has accused Royal Mail of cutting pay and jobs - leading to worse services - without agreement, in breach of a deal which ended the last national strike two years ago.

The company has denied the claims and maintains that the union is going back on an agreement to modernise the service.

The CWU is planning to ballot all its postal members next month for a national strike following several weeks of localised action.

The series of 24-hour strikes this week will hit Coventry, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Stoke on Trent and London on Monday; Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol and Leeds on Wednesday; Peterborough on Thursday and Friday; and Boston and Carrick Fergus on Saturday.

The strikes in Nottingham, Leeds and Carrick Fergus will be the first in these areas since the 2007 national dispute.

Source

Great!! That's more delay on the exam result front!! Good job I rang up and was lucky enough to get through to a human (of sorts). Not many of us have been that lucky!!

It seems there were promises made and not Delivered

And hopefully there will be more job cuts affecting the moaning, lazy, good-for-nothing ... aka postal workers, when the Royal Mail lose even more contracts etc as a result of this.

We are in the midst of the worst jobs crisis for years, the Royal Mail are already struggling as it is, don't they realise that by striking, they gain nothing - except to push more and more companies away from using Royal Mail. Corps need reliable services, not services that are affected by strikes everytime Jim at the sorting office stamps his feet and spits his dummy out.

There are 2.5 million unemployed people who would happily do their jobs!! Sack the fkin lot of them I say and get people who actually want the jobs working there.

im with you matt.

The local posties will be glad of their emptier sacks

Story of my life

Don't know if its been mentioned but Wallasey postmen have been on unofficial strike since yesterday see Wirral Globe
http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/4551454.Unofficial_strike_hits_Wirral_Post_Office/

Dave

Aaaaah! That explains why i never got my subscription magazines!

if you put a dog in the wallasey office 2 years ago you would have been done by animal rights as it was too small had no window that opened and no fire exits the company made their lives hell and treat them like shit i'd like to see the idiots who think theyre doing this for no reason try and do the job for a week without having atleast 3 work related injurys caused by the lack of health and safety, 1 long lasting health problem and stress, actual stress not i have to wait til cathy comes back from her break til i can go stuff my face its so unfair bull and lets not forget the legion airs decease the water had in there those people work themselves ill and still go in, they go out in all kinds of weather carry overloaded bags of 45kgs+ and never bring up the fact that your monthly porn fell out the shoddy discrete packaging and no i aint worked in royal mail but ive seen what goes on inside and out of that building so i have the right to say this

Are they striking again today?

Still on strike as of today Thursday.

Dave

I hope they all get sacked, plenty of people who will be more than happy to work.

They should stand back and take a look at the state of the country (and the future of the Royal Mail) and be thankful that they have jobs to go to.

Nobody is forcing them to go to work and there is no shortage of applicants, if they don't like the job, they should move on and let those that have families to support and mortgages to pay, and who are struggling to find work, do the work instead.

its not very often i do agree with you.

Royal Mail postmen to return to work in Wirral tomorrow



MAIL workers in Wirral are to return to work tomorrow following their unofficial strike this week.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said an agreement had been reached with Royal Mail to negotiate over the workers' complaints.

The workers stopped work on Monday over disputes on changes to their working conditions which would have seen fewer postmen delivering more and concerns over the allocation of jobs.

Mark Walsh of the CWU said they had agreed to return to work in return for the promise to negotiate by management.

He said: "Hopefully management will see sense and work with us.

"If they had worked with us at first then the people of Wallasey would not have had four days without deliveries."

According to the union 82 people work at the office in Wallasey – one of 10 delivery offices in Wirral – and estimated that some 70 of those were involved in the industrial action.

It is believed that the undelivered mail is still at the main sorting office for the area in Chester, and according to Royal Mail the CH44 and CH45 postcodes so far have been affected by the strike.

THE ECHO

That"s a bit strong Matt,The postal service has been shafted. The money making parcel post, giro,ect given away along with the likes of the oxton road post office which I have never been in without queing and is now stuck at the back of a shop in the middle of town. This had nothing to do with the guys on the shop floor who thruogh stealth are being robbed of earnings and conditions which would of been well earned and affordable if the post office had been left alone in it"s old form. Gordon Browns take on Churchills speach
I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER YOU

i got post today-thurs

Very True!

There are thousands of peeps who would love to take their jobs!

Dont rush into judging the postmen! You obviously dont know the full circumstances. I support their action and Im not the only one. You sound very out of touch.

You need to get out more......

I do have empathy with the postmen - split shifts/horrible consequences of this but I cannot see much improvements over the years. The cuts, closures and relocation of workers has maintained a system geared towards profits. The privatisation of the postal service may see rogue players bidding for contracts but these will definately state they would not be allowed to go on strike. It has worked with the bin service - no strikes and a local authority introduction of recycling which has been enforced via European legislation. It is about time someone challenged the unions - afterall, the workers will be losing out on income with the strikes.

The workers are the union and no one takes strike action lightly and what people seem to forget is they don't get paid when their on strike, it is very rare they even get strike pay from the union. Every worker should have the option to strike and withdraw their labour, without that option the workers in this country would still be working 100 hour weeks for next to no pay, no holidays, no sick leave, no health and safety in the work place etc,etc,etc. How do you think you got the benefits you have today, they wasn't handed to you on a plate, workers had to strike and in some cases die for them.

I remember the miners strikes and the Mersey Docks and Harbour strike about 14 years ago - it was appauling. Wifes of the dockworkers were looking for handouts - this was so embarrasing and condescending of them to be in this situation - the union involved still took its subs from the 'striking' workers!! And those actual union workers still had their full pay to live on whilst encouraging workers to strike for no pay, not even handouts from the union. People look for solidarity when in their work - perhaps they should look further afield than the unions. European legislation and Employment Law cover some working conditions. Anyway, you can tell what I think of unions. The Royal Mail should not be interfered with - its the Queens Mail and it is illegal: the unions should be prosecuted for encouraging its workers to interfere and with-hold mail. Workers should realise times are changing, profits and capitalism are priorities and they are expendable. Perhaps in face of the changes, they could recosider their job satisfaction - stay and strike or move on.

Workers are expendable, its because of like minded people like you, unions had to be formed in the first place.

Wallasey postal workers back in work today after four day strike





A BACKLOG of mail built up at Wallasey Sorting Office over the last four days because of industrial action was starting to be delivered today as striking postal workers returned.

Around seventy workers in Wallasey's main post office walked out on Monday in a row over working practices.

They were protesting at a new system - involving fewer staff - that they claimed was being imposed on them without proper consultation.

The row was over Royal Mail's plan to reduce staffing levels while spreading the workload onto existing "walks" - post rounds.

Earlier this week one worker told the Globe: "The Royal Mail are trying to use bully boy tactics on us and we’re just not having it.

"There’s always been a lot of goodwill that goes into this job and they're essentially taking that away.

"They’re cutting seven posts but still expect the same amount of work to be done. It’s fundamentally unfair and they haven’t consulted properly."

But today the workers were back in work starting to clear the four-day backlog of post, which has mainly affected the CH44 and CH45 postcode areas.

Communications Workers Union spokesman Mark Walsh confirmed that the striking employees had now returned as negotiations with Royal Mail over the proposed new working practices had finally got underway.

He told the Globe: "We've started talking to them [Royal Mail] this morning.

"It's a shame this didn't happen at the start of all this instead of at the finish, but at least we're talking.

"It's too early to say where we'll end up, but we're happy with the way things are going so far."

THE GLOBE

Is this still going on?
The last coupla weeks our post has been delivered at 3 4pm by a plastic postie. He had the royal mail bag but no uniform? Also, he struggled wiv how to post an a4 envelope. Tuk him 3 attempts b4 he then wrapped it round the small letters so he obviously not trained.

MY post has been the same.They could be short handed. The game is if you think a strike is coming hit the pat and mick a few weeks before I think it is six or you don"t get your dosh made up by employer.

I am afraid the backlogue hasn't been sorted. I've been waiting on ebay/amazon parcels for nearly 2 weeks. Postie seems to call in the morning and afternoon.