Royal Mail postal strikes start today
Rushda:
October 4th, 2007
Royal Mail workers walked out at noon today to mark the start of two 48 hour postal strikes which will be affecting the whole of Britain and will end up costing the industry millions of pounds. All customers have been warned that there will be no deliveries until next Thursday, as a second strike is also taking place which means that the Communication Workers Union’s 130,000 members will refuse to work from Monday 8th October until Wednesday.
The walkouts come as a protest against low pay and also fear of job cuts after no deal was reached between Royal Mail managers and the Communication Workers Union earlier this morning. Royal Mail’s offer of 2.5% increased pay is disputed by the workers and they also believe that the new modernisation plans Royal Mail is undertaking will put 40,000 jobs at risk. Royal Mail insist that the modernisation is vital for them to keep in line with the times and say that they have done everything they can to cooperate with the workers. In a statement a spokesperson from the Royal Mail says:
“We continue to urge the CWU to work with us to modernise the business and to help secure a successful future for the company and its people in the competitive market in which we now operate.”
The Union, however, believes that its actions are completely justified in light of what has been proposed by Royal Mail and the fact that no resolution has been achieved for the last five weeks. The deputy general secretary, Dave Ward says that the strikes are indeed “a proportionate response to an employer that is completely out of control.
Many are understandably very concerned about the strikes as they will disrupt businesses and individuals alike. Having to use couriers instead will seriously increase bills, and lots of people are relying on important mail they need to receive. Royal Mail ask customers to be patient and try not to send any mail over the weekend as this will clog up the system even more. As ever, it is such a shame that because of a dispute quite far removed from any of us, it is still the customers who suffer.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:42 am
The strikes are not just about pay and job cuts. The main concerns of postal workers are RM’s proposals on pension changes and flexibility. They are proposing to cut our pension and raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 - I have worked for RM for almost 30 years, expecting to be able to retire at 60. Now as I approach retirement age they are saying I will have to work on to 65 for a smaller pension - am I expected to be happy about that?
And they are proposing that we are ‘flexible’. At present we generally are on a set attendance time which we can plan our home life around. RM want us to work up to half an hour later every day, up to 2 hours later with 24 hours notice, and to change on to a compltely different attendance at 7 days notice. This would make child care arrangements completely impossible.
The CWU negotiated with RM for 5 weeks and came close to reaching agreement, but at the last minute RM reneged on all the agreed changes and presented the CWU with an unacceptable set of proposals which they demanded agreement on. We were left with no alternative except to take industrial action.
We regret having to do this. We are not well paid and striking is causing us considerable financial hardship. And we regret the difficulties caused to you, our customers who have generally been supportive of their postmen/women. But you should also understand that RM’s ‘modernisation’ proposals
will also affect you. They are proposing to close 2,500 Post Offices (Counters), end Sunday collections, and deliver mail up to 2 hours later. They do not recognise you as ‘customers’. They say that only the 10 biggest posters (banks and building societies mainly) are important.
If you want more information direct from the people involved, have a look at www.royalmailchat.co.uk
Once again, my apologies for any inconvenience caused to you, but we have been let with no choice.
October 8th, 2007 at 10:39 am
It’s just a sad state of affairs when this happens. Royal Mail are hugely unreliable as it is and this strike will knock their credibility even more. If they continue to take this kind of action then they lose the support of the British public. Striking is something from the dark ages and I for one do not support it. I’m sorry but that’s the way I feel and if you ask other people on the street today you will be surprised as to just how many of them agree that striking is not the answer.