Postal workers vote not to strike

Wednesday, 17 September 2003 12:00 AM

In a surprise result ,postal workers have voted against strike action.

Most commentators had been expecting workers to follow the Communication Workers' Union's lead and vote for strike action.

The vote though was very close with 48,000 voting against strike action and 46,000 in favour, according to early reports.

Union leaders had been unhappy with the proposed pay offer which they said amounted to only a 3% offer, with the rest of the package coming with strings, including thousands of job losses.

The Royal Mail bosses though said they were offering 14.5% and had cautioned workers against taking strike action as it would be akin to 'commercial suicide' for the recovering company.

Later this year Royal Mail is expected to return to profitability for the first time in a number of years.

It is expected that talks will continue, though the CWU appears now to be in a much weaker position to demand changes to the offer.

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