Back to main newsPostal staff vote for strikes - a Red letter day
Thu 08 Oct 2009
Author: Postal workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a national strike on Thursday in a bid to defend the future of the service.
The Communication Workers Union said its members had backed a nationwide walkout by 3-1 in protest at the "imposition" of changes to working practices as well as cuts in their pay and job losses.
The union will have to give seven days' notice of a strike, raising the prospect of industrial action across the country by the end of the month, just two years after the last national stoppage.
Almost 81,000 CWU members took part in the ballot, a turnout of 67 per cent. A total of 61,623 backed strikes, with 19,207 against, a majority of 76.24 per cent.
Deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the landslide ballot result, on a high turnout, was a "damning verdict" on the way Royal Mail was running the business.
The bitter row stems from the agreement which ended the last national strike.
Royal Mail claims it is implementing changes to its working practices in an attempt to modernise its service as agreed with the CWU.
But the union believes the company is implementing changes which go far beyond what was agreed, including cuts to jobs, pay and services.
Mr Ward explained that the company has tried to make out that problems only exist in some local offices.
"Royal Mail has never really been engaged in modernisation. They've been running down the business, running down services and cutting costs and it's that business plan that postal workers have overwhelmingly rejected," he said.
"We need a national agreement which secures a fair deal on modernisation and reward for the efforts of postal workers in transforming the business. We want reassurances on job security, covering both redundancies and full-time part-time ratios.
"Crucial to an agreement is fair workloads with agreed standards of measurement. Constantly disciplining postal workers will not improve efficiencies but will drive an ever bigger wedge between workers and what they are told is modernisation.
"We've seen cuts and increased workloads and now we need an agreed roll-out of real modernisation.
"Aligning the interests of customers, employees and the company as a whole is a prerequisite for the successful modernisation of Royal Mail."
Mr Ward said the union's leadership will now meet on Monday to decide its next move, giving a "window of opportunity" for talks to head off a strike.
But Royal Mail condemned the CWU plan for a national strike as "deplorable and irresponsible" and claimed the union's action would drive customers away from the business, undermining confidence in the entire postal services industry.
Managing director Mark Higson said: "We have held more than seven meetings with the CWU over the last few months and we call on them now to stop the strikes, get back round the table and talk."
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