Postal strikes which were scheduled to take place on 6 and 9 November 2009 have been called off, and the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has also put a stop to any strikes until the New Year. The strikes had been set to include over 120,000 workers on each day.
Over the previous two weeks, before the new announcement, CWU members have held five, 24-hour strikes.
Background to the Postal Strikes
The centre of the dispute between the CWU and Royal Mail lie in an agreement both sides made in 2007 regarding the modernisation of the postal service. The agreement is known as the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement.
Royal Mail has completed 3/4 of the changes outlined in the 2007 agreement, but the CWU claims that the firm is to discuss the final stage of the agreement of the modernisation, mainly in regard to job security.
One part of the modernisation plans outlined by Royal Mail includes the integration of a walk sequencing machine. Its function is to sort out letters into the order that they will be delivered by the postal workers on their rounds. This has led to concerns over job losses.
The CWU agrees that redundancies are inevitable, but both sides disagree on the extent to which these are going to happen.
The postal market in the UK is in decline with the demand for conventional post falling and a shard increase in the number of the UK population who are now using the internet. The impact of the internet has been huge with emails replacing written letters in many cases.
Potential Legal Action Against Royal Mail
The CWU has confirmed that it is going to go ahead with its plans for a legal challenge against the Royal Mail in regards to the hiring of temporary staff to deal with the post backlog created by previous strikes. The striking action in previous weeks had caused large delays in mail delivery.
They have accused Royal Mail of trying to break the strike using the temporary workers, which Royal Mail subsequently denied.
The Future
Lord Peter Mandleson, the Secretary of State for Business, stated that he welcomed the news that the strikes have been postponed, allowing more talks to take place. He said that "strikes do nothing to help Royal Mail, its business, its future prospects and of course the jobs and livelihoods of those who work in Royal Mail.
There had been fears of postal service problems over the Christmas period, but these have now been quelled with the announcement.
Source:
BBC News
Royal Mail
CWU
The Daily Telegraph
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