Royal Mail Strike: Tens of thousands of post workers began the fight to defend their jobs on Thursday with a solid nationwide strike, shutting down Royal Mail for the first time in two years.
Millions of letters and parcels have been piling up at all the 50 mail sorting and distribution centres in Britain as 42,000 workers declared their resolve to resist bullying bosses' attempts to cut jobs and force them to work harder for less pay.
Another 78,000 Royal Mail staff, including the postwomen and men who deliver letters to every address in the country, take their turn to strike on Friday.
The walkouts stilled the mail sorting machines and left huge parcel delivery trucks standing idle at mail centres across Britain as defiant post workers demanded an end to management attacks.
But Royal Mail bosses seemed determined to provoke further strikes last night that could turn the fight into a massive industrial dispute over Christmas.
After final attempts to avert the strike failed, CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward charged that Business Secretary
Peter Mandelson had colluded with multimillionaire Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier to "veto" any resolution through negotiations.
"Someone is deliberately attempting to undermine talks to make sure that we don't reach an agreement - the government and Royal Mail are together in this," he insisted.
Mr Ward highlighted the recently exposed "strike strategy" drawn up by Royal Mail executives, saying it proved that management had no interest in reaching a deal.
"This document clearly states that the only deal Royal Mail are prepared to reach is a deal on their terms and their terms alone," he revealed.
Mr Ward's assertion was echoed by striking post workers on picket lines across Britain.
At the Nine Elms mail centre in Vauxhall, south London, post worker John Humphries placed the blame for the strike on Mr Mandelson's "vendetta" against the publicly owned mail service.
"His problem is that he is trying to get his own back because it has been impossible to privatise us completely," he said.
Pickets at other mail centres explained that the Baron's attacks were giving confidence to Royal Mail bosses intent on forcing through their own version of modernisation.
"We believe changes in the business are long overdue, but they should be implemented jointly within the spirit of industrial relations," said Birmingham CWU rep Mahmood Ali.
"But Royal Mail just want to impose changes and their so-called modernisation by diktat," he added.
Leeds union rep Danny McGougan added that "while senior managers try to intimidate us and try to push change without negotiation, we will continue to have 100 per cent support for industrial action."
As hundreds of post workers, holding aloft placards declaring the strike a "fight to defend postal services," gathered at the East London mail centre before dawn, CWU rep Angie Mulcahy said simply: "The workload we have to put up with is unachievable, and I can't see the strikes stopping unless management reach an agreement with us."
morningstaronline.co.uk - 22.10.09
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