Royal Mail: Stockport wildcat strikers return to work whilst national talks extended until Sunday

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

staff walked out after a employee was sacked for calling somebody a scab, the "scab" was being driven into the office on strike days in the boot of a managers car so he was not seen by those on the picket line.
He was spotted and the "scab" reported the postie for calling him this and in due cource he was sacked, all staff walked out on Friday night

Also today, the CWU and Royal Mail announced an extension of the three week talks begun last month for a further five days. Two weeks of rolling strike action was suspended for the talks, and many local strikes have also been postponed while the talks continue.

Royal Mail workers on the www.royalmailchat.co.uk forum expressed frustration at the deadline extension, suggesting that the CWU leadership may be preparing for a climb down.

Many postal workers are keen to resume strike action, seeing the 22 "strings" attached to the below inflation pay deal as the final nail in the coffin for both their conditions of work and the postal service as a whole. At the same time there is a concern that continued delay of industrial action will lead to a loss of momentum, or possibly require a re-ballot for further strikes.

The public sector dispute saw an unlawful walkout by Prison Officers late last week, along with police officers demanding the right to strike, both rare occurrences in British industrial relations.

Unison announced today that it would be balloting local government workers for strike action after rejecting their new 2.475% pay offer, which could mean strikes in early November.