Post strike threat to Christmas parcels
POSTAL workers will strike for five days in a move set to wreak havoc with Christmas deliveries.
A row over jobs and pensions will see thousands of staff in Crown Post Offices walk out from next Monday – including a planned strike on Christmas Eve.
The union behind the walkout has boasted that it will create ‘absolute chaos’ when around 300 of the Post Office’s biggest High Street branches shut – throwing deliveries of Christmas presents and cards into disarray.
Last night, MPs warned that children could wake up disappointed on Christmas Day because their presents have not been delivered.
Shop counter staff down tools on December 19, 20 and Christmas Eve, while cash handlers – who deliver money to branches – are preparing to strike on December 22 and 23.
POST Office workers are to stage five days of strikes in the run-up to Christmas – potentially wreaking havoc with card and gift deliveries.
Thousands of staff in the Crown Post Offices, typically found in big towns and cities, will walk out from next Monday in the latest chapter of a long-running dispute over job losses and final salary pensions.
Workers will also strike on Christmas Eve.
The Communication Workers Union has boasted it will create ‘absolute chaos’ as families rush to post gifts and cards.
Around 300 of the Post Office’s biggest High Street counters will be forced to shut, which is likely to lead to huge queues elsewhere as customers are re-directed to smaller branches.
The disruption is set to create major problems for workers rushing to send Christmas presents during their lunch break next week.
The last day for posting Christmas presents secondclass is next Tuesday, December 20, while the deadline is December 21 for firstclass post.
Grant Shapps, the former Tory party chairman and head of the cross-party British Infrastructure Group, said: ‘I think it’s the Christmas present that absolutely no-one wanted.
‘The union bosses will have to live with the idea that millions of children could wake up disappointed on Christmas morning because they’ve not had their presents delivered.’
He added that the strike ‘could also be a spectacular own- goal, as people are forced to use other services and might never return to the Post Office’.
His fellow Tory MP Will Quince said: ‘ Whatever their political agenda I think it’s sad and disgraceful that this union would wish to ruin Christmas by trying to delay presents.’ Shop counter staff will down tools on December 19, 20 and Christmas Eve. In addition, cash- handlers who deliver money to branches will walk out on the 22nd and 23rd.
The CWU said this too will force branches to turn away customers. The Post Office, however, attempted to play down the impact of the strikes yesterday.
It claimed at least 97 per cent of its 11,600 branches would be unaffected. It said over the last four years it had dramatically cut its losses and modernised almost 7,000 Post Offices, adding more than 200,000 extra opening hours each week.
The CWU countered that 6,000 Post Offices have shut since 2002.
The Christmas walk-outs will be the fourth set of strikes since the CWU balloted its members in August. Assistant secretary Andy Furey said: ‘All of the blame for this unfortunate turn of events is 100 per cent down to the intransigence of the company, who have launched an unprecedented attack on the jobs, job security, and pensions of thousands of hard-working and loyal Post Office workers.
‘Our members want the Post Office management to pause its closure and privatisation programme, hold off on its planned pensions changes, and commit to sitting down with us and with the other key stakeholders of this Great Brit- ish institution and, together, construct a lasting vision.’
CWU general secretary Dave Ward claimed members had been ‘forced into fighting to save their jobs and this great institution from terminal decline’.
Kevin Gilliland, the Post Office’s network and sales director, said: ‘We are extremely disappointed that they prefer to resort to calls for strike action and we will be reviewing our position in light of this development. Our focus must be on supporting our customers, who rely on us at Christmas more than ever.’
Comment – Page 14
‘Spectacular own goal’ ‘Extremely disappointed’