Post Office workers have voted for strike action in a dispute with management over pay and job security. Nearly 4,000 staff from 373 Crown were balloted; 93% of those who voted were in favour of industrial action. Turnout was 66%.
The dispute centres around two areas: the lack of any pay increase for counter staff, and concerns over job security as Post Office Ltd has refused to extend a guarantee on the number of Crown offices (the large main offices found mostly in town centres), leading the Communication Workers Union to believe that further closures are planned.
The CWU’s deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, said:
this ballot is about more than pay; it is the job security of our members and the future of the Crown office network which is also at stake. We want to see a strong network of Crown offices, but the government and the company appear to be hiding the fact that they are planning a programme of further Post Office closures.
The Union has urged POL to return to talks; no dates for any industrial action have yet been set. The rest of the Post Office network is not involved in this dispute.
photo credit: sludgegulper
26 Responses
Annnnd…. welcome to everyone from Royal Mail Chat. Nice to see you again 🙂
Stories about Royal Mail never cease to amaze me…How dumb can one union be!
This is a business that looses money!
If it was a private company it would be doomed.
What ideas do the staff who voted have to turn the business around so that it becomes profit making?
If a business makes a profit then staff deserve a share of that. If the reverse if the case then what?
I am sadly not surprised to hear they voted in favour of striking. Everyone thinks they deserve a pay cut and no one wants to lose their jobs……however, I can never understand why these peple do not understand that they are only harming themselves more. The general public has no sympathy for them and as far as I can see it will only make the government need to close these Crown offices down faster as they lose even more money.
Maybe they should be privatising The Post office, instead of Royal Mail…
Thank God for OBA & PPI…
Union do more harm than good. My old Union when I was a Bus Driver ill advised me all the time and then left you when the management come down on me.
I know that most employers are bad, but if I ever employed anyone I’d interact with the employees one to one. If they have a work related problem, I’d want them to come to me.
The Royalmail needs to modernise, and sadly to modernise they’ll have to shed jobs. All the Unions are interested in is Union fees as they know job loses = less Union fees.
Unions only act in there own interest, they don’t seem to care for the individual worker.
Postal services world wide are losing money and those idiots think they deserve a pay rise.
And the average online seller if they’d like a another in in postal charges.
There is always the Sub Post Offices where most are happy to provide a quality service even if Lemming like the Crown Office Staff are rushing towards Unemployment
I would’nt mind if they’d stop loosing our stuff…..!!!
Reminds me of British Leyland in the 1960’s and 70’s. Always on strike and thinking that the country owed them a living. Then when the country finally gave up with them and they all lost their jobs the sob stories started. But the loss of their jobs was self inflicted. So how long before there are no more Crown Post Offices? Come to that how long before there is no BA as their staff are also Striking hard for Self Inflicted Unemployment.
send them to the trenches or down the pits we say
The thing that comes to my mind is that the world is constantly changing and the Unions are constantly trying turning the clock back. One of the reasons the buses were privatised in london was because they took the p#ss out of tax payers money. And when I was employed as a bus driver I used to hear all the stories of the good old days. How they got a twenty minute over time docket for moving a bus inside a garage(which would have took a maximum of 5 minutes)
Unions where a good idear in Victorian times when they thought for the worker. How they just want political power.
John Lewis today have announced the creation of 4000 jobs over the next 2 years and awarded all the staff an 18% performance bonus for this year on the back of excellent results achieved by the staff.
Maybe the 4000 Post Office staff should all seek employment at John Lewis?
main post office staffs natural ethos is to hinder and hamper
its no surprise that they voted to strike
I am often initially sympathetic to workers who see themselves getting a raw deal while the bosses vote themselves pay rises or bonuses, but in reality most strikes are selfish ie they are about looking after no. one, while the little one man/woman business gets shafted by all and sundry. I never hear about unions or workers in large unionised industries giving a damn about us.