County postal staff join strike
Hundreds of Shropshire postal workers today staged a walkout in the first wave of national strike action which is expected to bring massive disruption to the county's mail network. [caption id="attachment_78748" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption=" Stikers outside Shrewsbury Sorting Office. Darren Ward, Sally Joiner, Mike Dunfrey, Mark Bagley, Martin Eddies and Pete Kelly and Steve Bennett."][/caption] Hundreds of Shropshire postal workers today staged a walkout in the first wave of national strike action which is expected to bring massive disruption to the county's mail network. Nearly 500 workers based at the Royal Mail sorting office in Castle Foregate, Shrewsbury, were involved in today's 24-hour strike, which was launched at 4am. A further 700 Shropshire workers at Royal Mail centres in Oswestry, Oakengates and Wellington will walk out tomorrow in the second wave of industrial action by the Communication Workers Union in a bitter row over jobs, pay and modernisation. Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers across the country launched the strike today, while 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow. Meanwhile, a war of words erupted today at the start of national strikes by postal workers involved an increasingly bitter mail dispute. The Communication Workers Union stepped up its attack on Business Secretary Lord Mandelson over his role in the stand-off over jobs, pay and modernisation, with one leader accusing him of telling "untruths." Deputy general secretary Dave Ward today repeated he believed a "form of words" had been agreed during marathon talks earlier this week, claiming the progress was "wiped out" by a last minute intervention from Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson. Mr Ward told GMTV that Lord Mandelson had "misrepresented" the dispute and was "frankly telling untruths." [itnplayer id="embedvideoplayer_eff73c48d181c0e43def46212cbfa733"] See today's Shropshire Star for full coverage of how the strike is affecting the county.
Hundreds of Shropshire postal workers today staged a walkout in the first wave of national strike action which is expected to bring massive disruption to the county's mail network.
Nearly 500 workers, who are based at the Royal Mail sorting office in Castle Foregate, Shrewsbury, were involved in today's 24-hour strike, which was launched at 4am.
A further 700 Shropshire workers at Royal Mail centres in Oswestry, Oakengates and Wellington will walk out tomorrow in the second wave of industrial action by the Communication Workers Union in a bitter row over jobs, pay and modernisation.
Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers across the country launched the strike today and 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow.
A fresh wave of strikes, likely to be held for three days at the end of next week, is expected to be announced.
Pete Kelly, area delivery representative for the Shropshire and Mid Wales branch of the CWU, said: "We want this dispute to be resolved by negotiation as quickly as possible and we want the management to honour the agreement they signed in 2007 which was to work with the workforce to create a more productive industry."
Mr Kelly said mail in Shropshire would face a delivery backlog, on average, of about four days.
At the Shrewsbury protest today, one worker, who did not want to be named, said: "This is about protecting the service for the customer and jobs for the people who've got them."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown today urged both sides to resume talks.
"It's essential that everybody gets round the table, gets round the table as quickly as possible.
"This strike is soluble and I believe that management and the workforce can reach a solution to this and they should do this as quickly as possible," he added.
Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said: "My door is open and my phone is on and I am urging them again today to meet me so that we can all sign that agreement, get the strikes stopped and give us some peace in which we can get on with delivering Christmas for our customers."