Postal strike action continuing
A series of local postal strikes are continuing to take place across England ahead of the start of an official ballot for a UK-wide national walkout.
WEDNESDAY’S STRIKE LOCATIONS
Birmingham
Carlisle
Coventry
Nottingham
Northampton
Hadfield
Warrington
Peterborough
Swindon
Leeds
London
The latest localised strikes by Communication Workers Union (CWU) members are taking place in cites including London, Leeds and Birmingham.
The CWU accuses Royal Mail of pushing ahead with job cuts and will send out national ballot papers on Thursday.
The Royal Mail said the CWU’s plans for a national strike were “irresponsible”.
CWU members have now been holding localised strikes across the UK since last week.
It estimates that as a result, there remains a backlog of more than 20 million letters and parcels in London alone.
However, the Royal Mail says the this figure is only nine million UK-wide, of which six million are in London.
It adds that more than 90% of its staff are continuing to work as normal.
Job security call
The CWU says Royal Mail bosses are forcing through a modernisation of the service - including cutting pay and jobs - without proper consultation.
It is calling for a signed joint agreement with the Royal Mail that would guarantee staff job security.
The result of the ballot on a national walkout - which would be the first since 2007 - is due to be known on either 8 or 9 October.
CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said there could be no successful change to the Royal Mail without union agreement.
“Modernisation is crucial to the future success of Royal Mail, but the implementation of change must be agreed and it must bring with it modern pay and conditions,” he said.
“We want to see a new job security agreement which will help people through this time of change for the company.”
‘Essential modernisation’
The Royal Mail said in a statement that the CWU was “wholly irresponsible” to press ahead with a national strike ballot as talks between its senior managers and union leaders continue to take place.
“The ballot is simply the latest attempt by the CWU to oppose the essential modernisation of Royal Mail on the ground despite its public claims to support change,” it said.
The Royal Mail added that its continuing streamlining plans had already been approved by the CWU under the Pay and Modernisation 2007 agreement between the two sides, and were a vital response to mail levels falling by 10% each year.
Royal Mail’s operations director Paul Tolhurst said he urged the CWU to abandon all current and planned strikes.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce, said the striking Royal Mail workers were “shooting themselves in the foot”.
“The longer it goes on, people are going to find alternative ways [to get their post delivered], and as a result the Royal Mail will be even harder hit.”
Areas affected by Wednesday’s strike action are Birmingham, Carlisle, Coventry, Nottingham, Northampton, Hadfield, Warrington, Peterborough, Swindon, Leeds and London.
The Royal Mail currently employs 121,000 mail workers.
BBC NEWS | Business | Postal strike action continuing
More postal strikes hit England
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8208848.stm
19 August 2009
STRIKE LOCATIONS
Today: Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Leeds
20 August: Peterborough
21 August: Peterborough, Kings Lynn
22 August: Boston, Carrickfergus
24 August: Skegness, Huntingdon
Postal workers have walked out in the Midlands, Bristol, Yorkshire and south- east England.
The Communication Workers Union says it aims to stop deliveries in and out of London for 24 hours.
The bad feeling between the union and ministers has continued, with the CWU calling yesterday’s comments by Lord Mandelson “a disgrace”.
The business secretary had accused the union of trying to “frustrate” modernisation at Royal Mail.
Lord Mandelson said the union had to “wake up” to stop the Mail’s “further decline.”
The CWU is due to ballot next week on whether to hold a national strike for the first time since 2007.
The union’s deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, accused ministers of encouraging Royal Mail to “destroy” the union:
He said: "Lord Mandelson’s comments are an absolute disgrace.
“Postal workers note that this government - a Labour government - are abrogating their responsibilities”, he told Breakfast on BBC Radio 5 live.
Mr Ward said the government wanted Royal Mail managers to modernise the service, no matter what the cost: “They’re now saying to those people, we’re giving you the green light; get in and destroy this union.”
Exam Results
Royal Mail insisted that Thursday’s delivery of A-level results would not be affected.
A spokesman said: "Well over 90% of our people and more than 90% of our operational units are working normally.
"We cannot understand why the union is claiming to support modernisation when it’s pursuing a policy of actively opposing the changes we need to make to ensure there’s a successful future for the business.
“We have held more than 50 meetings with the union in recent months and the door for talks with the union remains open.”
In June, Lord Mandelson announced plans to sell off part of Royal Mail had been delayed because no suitable buyer had been found.
Some businesses have warned that, if the strikes continue, they will cause problems in the wider economy.
Gay Slade, who runs a feng shui business via eBay, said the dispute was “adding misery upon misery”.
She said: "It’s getting to the point now where we’re getting really worried that this is going to carry on too long.
"Nothing seems to be being done to resolve the issue. It’s just going on and on.
"They’re now talking about balloting for an all-out strike in October, which will be coming up to the peak period for internet sellers.
“It could ruin people’s businesses and ruin people’s lives. People could lose their homes over this.”
Earlier this year, Royal Mail warned it was in a “very tight financial position” and had to cut costs.
In 2008, all four parts of Royal Mail were profitable for the first time in almost two decades.
==============================================
轉載一下BBC的新聞,也給大家提個醒
BBC NEWS | Business | Postal staff set to strike again
17 July 2009
Postal staff set to strike again
Industrial action at the Royal Mail is set to escalate with strike action scheduled for three days next week, the BBC has learned.
The strike action on 25, 27 and 28 July comes on top of Friday’s one-day walkout by 12,000 Royal Mail employees.
The escalating action is in defence of workers who, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) say, are being unduly pressured by Royal Mail managers.
The Royal Mail has accused the union of standing in the way of modernisation.
‘Illogical cuts’
Union members in London and other selected regions are to down tools in the dispute over job cuts and working conditions.
This could result in no deliveries of mail on Saturday 25 July, and no work at Royal Mail’s London distribution centres on 27 and 28 July, says BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam.
The CWU has accused Royal Mail managers of trying to “break the union for good” and accused them of “illogical and arbitrary” job cuts.
Deputy General Secretary of the CWU, Dave Ward, said his union recognised that the Royal Mail is “facing huge problems” but said that it had a very different view of what modernisation is needed.
The vision that Royal Mail has put to workers involves “endless job cuts, hugely damaging cuts to the service and continuous cuts in our members’ pay, pensions and conditions,” he said.
Paul Tolhurst at the Royal Mail countered that with “mail volumes falling and our profits under huge pressure, there is no real opportunity for us to stop [making] the changes.”
“Particularly,” he added, “as these changes we are trying to put in were agreed with [the union] in 2007.”
Earlier on Friday, about 400 employees marched on Westminster to deliver letters of protest to the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson.
Sell off
The Royal Mail is suffering from a big drop in demand for letters as more and more people use the internet to communicate.
The government announced last month that it was delaying controversial plans to sell a stake in the postal service to a private company.
It maintains that the partial sell off of Royal Mail is required as part of measures to tackle the company’s finances - in particular a pensions deficit said to be near £8bn.
Lord Mandelson has said the company cannot survive without the sale.
The Royal Mail employs more than 150,000 people in the UK, most of whom are represented by the CWU.
[ 编辑 PakPakPaper 在 09-09-17 02:02 ]
又罢工?去年不是刚罢完吗? 
上年罷了幾天,很多信都沒有處理就放在倉庫,
因為恢復工作后還是有很多的郵件寄出的,
后來差不多用了半個月才恢復到了正常的服務,
真的好麻煩好麻煩
是只有邮递员不送信，还是连邮局也不开
不是吧~罢工罢上瘾了啊~~ 
太吓人了，经常罢工，偶觉得他们待遇太8错呀。 
哇哦~~大家该买东西的赶紧买啊~
今天刚寄一个包裹，应该没有问题吧。。。first,recorded的。。。
哇不是吧，最近有好多包裹要收，呼唤一下，快来吧快来吧 
我有个包 网上显示14号北京发往考文垂 到今天还都没更新下一步 难道跟这个有关？
不是吧～～～～我朋友从中国寄出的包裹刚上路～～～不过用的ems快递，应该赶不上吧～～～
默念一百遍赶不上～～～～ 
明天赶紧去邮局寄东西
上帝保佑.
明天我的包裹快快来吧..
跟ROYAL ONLINE定的邮票集,到现在都没收到.都10天了.郁闷 :cn14:
peachpig于2009-07-18写道:
太吓人了，经常罢工，偶觉得他们待遇太8错呀。
這次罷工應該是因為最近政府打算把POST SERVICE私有化，員工擔心私有化之后待遇會變差有關
罢工之后不会又涨邮资吧？
又罢工啊
好像这周五，六伦敦和几个城市邮寄就受影响了…… 收到学校的信说……
不知道下周初正不正常
这些人待遇都算很不错了吧 还成天罢工
邮寄中国会有影响吗？？？？？？？？？ 
正好省點錢，不用網購了 