Postal strikes could affect county
POSTAL strikes could wreak havoc with mail delivery in Gloucestershire in the coming days, it was claimed last night.
More than 2,500 postal workers across the Bristol area are set to take part in a series of strikes over the coming two weeks – starting tomorrow.
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Workers said some mail en route to Gloucester went through the sorting process in Bristol and would be delayed.
David Wilshire, of the Communications Workers Union in Bristol, said: "A fair proportion of mail going to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and the Forest of Dean goes through Bristol and the county will be affected.
"People can expect their mail to be delayed by two or three days."
He added that people expecting important mail in the next couple of weeks would be fairly helpless.
"There is nothing people will be able to do about it," he said.
"Millions of items go to Bristol from Gloucester, and vice versa, so people can't exactly march up there and collect their mail."
In a continuing dispute about job security, pay, pensions, work rates and working hours, the first of a strikes of planned strikes is set to start at the South West Distribution Centre in Severn Beach tomorrow.
This will be followed later in the day by further strike action involving distribution and collection drivers based at the giant mail processing centre in Filton, Bristol.
Mail sorters at the Filton site will also be taking strike action from 1.30pm on Tuesday, September 1.
This will be followed later in the week by a 24-hour strike involving 19 delivery depots across the Bristol area.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We again condemn the CWU for striking locally over much-needed modernisation and change which has already been successfully implemented by our people in the majority of offices around the UK and is working well."
He said customers in the GL postcode area would continue to receive deliveries of mail and collections would be unaffected.
But he added there could be problems transporting mail through the network due to the strike.
He said Royal Mail had contingencies in place – including the use of managers – to minimise the impact of the strike and to return service to normal as quickly as possible.
For more information, see www.royalmail.com/service updates or call customer services on 08457 740 740.
4 Comments
by Paul, Stoke-on-Trent
Thursday, September 03 2009, 3:26PM
“Im sick to the teeth of all these royal mail strikes, they should be thankful theyve got jobs at all in this economy, i understand theres always a good reason for striking but it affects the entire country so i feel it's a bit selfish.”
by Terry F, Bream
Wednesday, August 26 2009, 4:16PM
“If there is a strike, at least it will stop my letters being posted in other boxes and me gettin wrong mail.
Service = profits = a job?”
by Local Postie, Cheltenham
Wednesday, August 26 2009, 2:58PM
“Rayal Mail management should look in the mirror to see why these actions are taking place. Their revisions are ill-conceived, impractical, unethical and will be unworkable. They care little or nothing for their customer base; ask any large firm in Cheltenham that relies on regular mail deliveries or collections. Managers are concerned merely with ticking boxes and trying to cope with manpower-to-volume ratios with increasingly unrealistic targets. Morale amongst front-line staff has been scraping along the ocean floor for such a long time that it's inevitable that an all-out national strike is on the cards.”
by Local Postie, Cheltenham
Wednesday, August 26 2009, 2:56PM
“Rayal Mail management should look in the mirror to see why these actions are taking place. Their revisions are ill-conceived, impractical, unethical and will be unworkable. They care little or nothing for their customer base; ask any large firm in Cheltenham that relies on regular mail deliveries or collections. Managers are concerned merely with ticking boxes and trying to cope with manpower-to-volume ratios with increasingly unrealistic targets. Morale amongst front-line staff has been scraping along the ocean floor for such a long time that it's inevitable that an all-out national strike is on the cards.”