Despite official strikes being called off, wildcat strikes and other disputes continue in the postal service.
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.
One union activist told Socialist Worker, “Senior managers had brought in a hard hitter to smash the late shift, our strongest one. He told us that it doesn’t matter what the union says, you’re starting later, and that’s the way it’s going to be.
“People were raging. We waited until we had the maximum number possible from each shift – about 250, and then we walked out.
“Within 20 minutes management were asking what it would take to get us to go back in.”
The new times have been made voluntary, no one will have pay docked or be disciplined and union facility time won’t be affected.
Carlisle
Some 500 postal workers in Carlisle walked out unofficially on Friday of last week over the use of temporary workers to clear the backlog from the strike.
Crick
Workers at the Royal Mail’s flagship National Distribution Centre in Crick, Northamptonshire, are threatening to ballot for strike action in a dispute over the introduction of new routes for network drivers.
CWU rep Frank Alderson at the NDC, says, “The dispute is being prolonged due to management’s continued refusal to honour the recent national agreement reached to end the strike action.
“We now have a situation whereby management have altered arrival and departure times without the staff in place to perform them.”
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