The strike called by the CWU which threatened most of the capitals mail service was a "shambles" according to senior postal workers who spoke to the London Daily News, with delivery vans able to cross picket lines in Rathbone Place, Mount Pleasant and Nine Elms delivery depots.
Delivery vans crossed picket lines on Friday because the strike ballots the CWU had conducted were apparently not complete and Royal Mail managers threatened if the drivers did not cross picket lines they would face the sack. The Royal Mail said:
"Ballots in the South London Mail Centre (processing side), Mount Pleasant Mail Centre and Rathone Place delivery office, we informed the union of discrepancies in the ballot."
Indeed the Royal Mail was believed to have challenged the strike ballot at the High Court on Friday in an attempt to prevent the strike. A Royal Mail spokesman denied that any legal challenges were made, something the CWU reject.
One senior postal worker told the London Daily News:
"We should have postponed the strike and then scheduled a total shut down. The way it happened we are now made to look weaker in the negotiations with the Royal Mail I blame the CWU for not organising the strike properly."
There is a proposal now by the CWU to a 3 month moratorium were there will be no strikes on the basis there are no job cuts. In response to this the Royal Mail said:
"With productivity in London offices lagging behind the rest of the country – and in some parts of the capital by up to 35% below the best in other UK regions – it’s clear the CWU should honour fully existing agreements, including the agreement the union leadership signed in the presence of the TUC in 2007, which have led to the successful introduction of new ways of working in units throughout the rest of the UK.
The 2007 agreement covers the changes we urgently need to make in London as mail volumes fall at a rate of around 10% per annum with every 1% fall costing some £70 million annually in lost revenue. Royal Mail has already made similar changes in many delivery offices outside London and we are asking no more of employees in the capital than in the rest of the UK. As mail volumes fall and the type of mail we are carrying changes we must urgently adapt and become more efficient right across the country.
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