Royal Mail

Unions have rejected the postal group's plan to overhaul its pensions scheme and are poised to ballot nearly 150,000 members over whether they back the plan or not.

The 100 strikers, member of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), are refusing to deliver mail until at least 16th January following a meeting between workers. The extension came ahead of talks between the union and Royal Mail.

Burslem Delivery Office has been the site of a large number of unofficial walkouts this year, alongside the official strike action in August and October.

The vote was on a 64% turnout.

Many workers have reacted angrily to the news, with one employee on Royal Mail Chat stating:

The problem, according to headlines in the mainstream press, was a 2.5% pay rise being offered by Royal Mail to its 190,000 workers, along with some vague problems to do with ‘terms and conditions’.

The reality of what is being faced by the postal workers is far more complex and vastly more damaging, not just for them, but for everyone who wants to be sure of getting their mail.

Belfast
Postal workers in Belfast have won an important victory against management after unofficial action on Friday of last week. It took the workers just one and a half hours to force down bosses’ attempts to change start times.

Managers insisted that the workforce put forward their start times by two hours.

CWU bosses Billy Hayes and Dave Ward met with Royal Mail's Adam Crozier and Allan Leighton on the 12th of October, signing a deal just hours after Royal Mail had gained an injunction to prevent further strike action scheduled for the beginning of last week.

Almost all offices in North, East, South East and South West London have walked out, along with Liverpool; Edinburgh, Chester, Fife, Livingston, Peterborough, Dalkeith, Bristol, Leicester, Grangemouth, Kilwinning and Kent, also on unofficial strike. Glasgow walked out earlier in the week but have returned to work.

The document, a powerpoint presentation sent to general managers shortly after further strikes were announced in September, outlines Royal Mail's endgames for the talks. It includes a whole range of measures which postal workers said today would destroy the postal service if brought in.

Highlights include:

- No more negotiations with the CWU on every subject at every level

130,000 Communication Workers Union (CWU) members returned to work today after the latest four day strikes, but the introduction of later starts by executive action has led to mass walkouts in Glasgow, Lancaster, Liverpool, and London, with more offices to follow.

Royal Mail management suspended the workers for bullying and harrassment, but has refused to comment on the allegations made. Their colleagues walked out unofficially in support of the twelve suspended and remain on strike.

Workers at Stockport returned today after agreeing to ballot for official strike action. They had walked out on Friday following a mass meeting in the canteen. The walkout occurred shortly after a driver was sacked due allegations made by a scab during the official strike action last month.

update: according to posters on royalmailchat.co.uk

A 24 hour strike is scheduled 6am Friday 31 August 2007 until 6 am Saturday 1st September 2007 for all Romec Engineers and Admin grades.

The CWU stated that union negotiators held a meeting with management on Tuesday 21st August 2007; but were unable to make any clear progress.

The CWU website had this announcement:

Why was the strike called off?
The obvious answer is that the union called the strikes off because Royal Mail (RM) was willing to negotiate. Dave Ward publicly offered for the union that if RM would enter "meaningful" negotiations they were willing to call off the pending action.

While management tried to downplay the effects of the strike, the CWU claimed that members supported the strikes in overwhelming numbers. Post Office Limited (POL) Head Office was placed in disarray due to severe staff shortages as managers were once again forced to travel at great cost across the country to cover members’ jobs.

Postal workers were just about to resume a second two weeks of rolling strike action, which has already built up 10-14 days backlog at Royal Mail depots around the country.

The strike at the Hawksworth sorting office lasted two hours until the CWU union persuaded the strikers to return to work. They were angry that two collegues who had taken an active part in the ongoing national strikes were being transferred to another area.

The Post Office Ltd. wants to shut 85 post offices and shift services over to the much lower-paid workers at WH Smith, as part of its overall plan to close around 1,000 post offices. Post Office Ltd.

Available here in TIF and here in PDF format. The text follows:

Dispatch

Public sector pay dispute — information for action

Issue 1 - August 2007

Royal Mail workers: Fighting to win

Doing the job as it’s meant to be done

Liverpool:
Managers drove mail into the building, which resulted in a wildcat at the Liverpool Mail Centre when workers refused to unload the lorry. The wildcat was supported by Polish agency workers who refused to cross the picket line, and instead went to the pub.

Newcastle: