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24-hour walkout hits London post deliveries
Dick Murray and Joe Murphy19 Jun 2009
Thousands of postal workers across London today joined a 24-hour strike.
Collection and delivery services suffered disruption but post offices remained open. Further strikes have not been ruled out.
However, workers at the three largest offices in London — Mount Pleasant, South London and the West End — turned up for work.
A spokeswoman said this was because Royal Mail challenged the strike ballots there.
Royal Mail said it expected deliveries to take place across a wide area of central London.
The strike by nearly 9,000 workers has been ordered by the Communication Workers Union in response to cuts by Royal Mail, which, says the union, break a national agreement and threaten modernisation of the postal service.
A CWU spokeswoman said there was a “solid response” with voting at nine to one in favour of strike action.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, speaking exclusively to the Standard, said: “This strike is highly regrettable but it is all too typical of the industrial relations problems that have prevented Royal Mail from modernising anywhere near the pace needed.”
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Royal Mail has broken the 2007 agreement which committed the company to negotiating modernisation with the CWU. We are now seeing cuts but not modernisation and there's only so long before this is going to have a major impact on services.”
Royal Mail said it was “doing everything possible to provide services” during the strike.
