Tube strike over - Postal strike looms
Friday, 12 June 2009 4:59 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Ten thousand postal workers will go on strike in a dispute with Royal Mail over jobs and services, threatening to disrupt mail deliveries and collection across the capital.
Following this week's RMT tube strike, Londoners are facing more chaos when ten thousand postal workers will walk out for 24 hours on Friday June 19th.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) accused Royal Mail of refusing to "negotiate change" and of pushing ahead "with arbitrary cuts which will damage services''.
Royal Mail was ignoring part of the agreement they reached with the union following the 2007 dispute and "implementing arbitrary cuts in costs without modernising," CWU added.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "We have offered a moratorium on all strike action if Royal Mail will suspend executive action and enter into meaningful negotiations. We want to bring forward the successful transformation of the business by working together. They need to honour the 2007 national agreement and work with us to achieve that."
The deal agreed after the 2007 national strike set out to improve efficiency and modernisation but Mr Ward said Royal Mail didn't honour their part of the agreement when they tried to impose damaging job cuts and changes to services.
"The future of the business must be safeguarded through careful planning, not shooting from the hip. Postal workers deliver a first class service but the current cuts and attitude of management threatens that and worsens services," he said.
Royal Mail could avert the strike if they pulled back from the cuts and entered negotiations over modernisation with the union. If not, further strike would take place, CWU warned.
A royal mail spokesman said: "A strike will not modernise Royal Mail - it will simply disrupt the service to which customers are entitled, lead to an even greater loss of business and leave Royal Mail far less able to protect full time jobs. "
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