Striking mail staff speak out

Alex Gore • Published 23 Oct 2009 13:00 2 Comments

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"MODERNISATION means cuts" according to Royal Mail workers manning picket lines across Reading today (Friday).

The early morning walk-outs by more than 500 delivery and collection staff took place at the town's three delivery offices in Sutton Business Park in Earley, Loverock Road in west Reading and Gillette Way in Whitley.

The row between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail bosses over modernisation plans, job cuts and pay, looks set to rumble on into next week with three more days of national strikes planned - one of which will take place in Reading on Saturday, October 31.

Speaking outside the Reading Delivery Office in Gillette Way, CWU safety rep, Ian Warrick said: "The main reason we are here is the bullying and harassment taking place across the country by managers forcing through their changes.

"People are made redundant and then those who remain are given the extra work and expected to do it in the same amount of time. One chap in this area was told he was not sorting fast enough and was docked a day's pay - he has 20 years' experience."

Mr Warrick, who has worked for Royal Mail in Reading for 14 years, also said workers were not consulted about the move from Caversham Road to Gillette Way which took place two weeks ago and that when they arrived the heating was not working and the toilets were not finished.

He added: "A lot of our members were also made redundant and others now have to travel to Swindon. A manager was actually killed on the motorway at 5.30am one morning on her way to work. I feel very angry."

CWU collections rep, Wayne Levy, who has 20 years' experience with Royal Mail, said members were unhappy with service cuts including smaller delivery offices being closed and collections being reduced.

He said: "Some people think this is about money, it's not. We are upset that we did not receive a wage increase this year but part of this is about defending the service. Modernisation means cuts."

Mr Levy said he is prepared to strike next week if a resolution is not achieved, adding: "It's a necessity."

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John
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Oct 23, 13:48
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Less people, more work, no pay rises - welcome to the real world that the rest of use have lived in for some years.

Be glad your job can't be offshored to a cheaper company.

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Andy Reading
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Oct 27, 23:34
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I used to think that Trade Unions were a force for good, for supporting hard working employees against corporate bullies. Unfortunately in this case the unions seem to be picking as many small greivances as possible to try to justify their members' fees.

It was well known for three years that the original sorting office, just a minutes' walk from my house, was moving to South Reading, so I don't buy that workers were consulted.

Even as a taxpayer subsidising Royal Mail's service, I was happy to support the move and forego my luxury of a minutes' walk to the sorting office for the occasional 20 minute bus ride to fetch my parcels, for the sake of saving thousands of taxpayers some unnecessary money, as I knew that my sacrifice would lead to others' benefit.

The Royal Mail will always be king of "the final mile" and postmen should be proud of this important job keeping the community together, but why are they fighting against making this their speciality and instead fighting to keep the repetitive, boring job of manually sorting the mail?

I can't help feeling that union members have been duped by the unions into campaigning for a boring, worthless manual job that adds nothing to society, and unions are forced to dupe their members into striking to maintain this pointless part of their work to justify their membership fees.

I hope there will be a "final-mile" competitor that will be staffed with employees who are happy that their time is well spent contributing to society and not spent on forcing a once-vital industry into irrelevance.

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