Training | 2009.10.23
30m letters going nowhere as other unions warn of walkouts
More than 30m undelivered letters and parcels are languishing in delivery offices after the first two days of national postal strikes, Royal Mail has said.
Many million more items will be awaiting collection from postboxes after the Communications Workers\' Union staged its first national stoppages in the increasingly bitter industrial dispute. The union yesterday confirmed that three more days of action would take place starting next Thursday, spelling further chaos for millions of households and businesses around the country.
Royal Mail\'s managing director, Mark Higson, said it was "appalling but sadly not surprising" that more strikes had been called. Speaking about this week\'s strikes, when a skeleton workforce kept some mail moving, a Royal Mail spokesman said: "We are very grateful to the 20% of our delivery staff who have chosen to come to work today and who are doing everything possible to get all delayed mail delivered to customers as quickly as possible over the next few days."
Royal Mail is refusing to hold talks with the CWU under the auspices of the conciliation service Acas unless the union calls off the strikes. But the government is not insisting the CWU calls a truce as a precondition for Acas talks, although it continues to urge the union to do so. A spokesman for business secretary Lord Mandelson said last night that the government\'s position had not changed: "The government will leave no stone unturned to get both sides round the table. We believe dialogue is the only way out of this."
Adam Crozier, the embattled chief executive of Royal Mail, will give his first public interview for three weeks when he appears on the BBC\'s Andrew Marr programme tomorrow. It comes amid signs that public opinion is starting to turn against the company. A poll by BBC2\'s Newsnight showed twice as many people sympathised with the postal workers as with Royal Mail over the dispute.
The company is also becoming increasingly concerned that the government\'s staunch backing of its management could soften as the dispute drags on, according to sources close to Royal Mail. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, savaged Gordon Brown in prime minister\'s questions, accusing him of dithering over the dispute, earlier this week.
Next week, the first of Royal Mail\'s 30,000 temporary staff will start work. The CWU claims that the move breaches employment law and is preparing evidence before making a legal challenge in the next few days. Royal Mail insists that the extra staff – twice the amount it normally takes on in the run-up to Christmas – will be used only to clear the backlog of mail, not to carry out the duties of striking workers.
The GMB union has set up a hotline for members of the public to report the names of the employment agencies supplying workers and the names of the workers.
Royal Mail also faces hostility from the union Unite, which represents Royal Mail\'s 12,000 managers. The Guardian revealed this week that the union had advised members not to undermine the CWU by standing in for delivery workers on strike.
The strikes next week will involve 43,700 staff, including drivers and those working in mail centres and delivery units on Thursday. The following day, 400 workers in Plymouth, Stockport and Stoke handling poorly addressed mail will stage walkouts. On Saturday, 77,000 delivery and collection workers will also strike.
More industrial unrest threatens to sweep the country as other workers prepare to walk out in protest over pay and conditions. Unite yesterday announced that First Group\'s bus drivers in Essex, Yorkshire and the north-west will stage walkouts over a pay freeze. Firefighters in Yorkshire, binmen in Leeds, and London Underground workers are also embroiled in separate industrial disputes.
Derek Simpson, the joint general secretary of Unite, said that many workers had shown restraint for a long time over their demands because of the recession. But he argued that the prospect of utility bills this winter and other rises in living costs meant that many now felt they should be in line for corresponding increases in pay.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/23/unions-postal-strikes-cwu-acas
