UK NEWS

THREE MORE DAYS OF POST STRIKES AFTER TALKS FAIL

Royal Mail workers continue to strike

Thursday October 29,2009

By Louise Barnett

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BRITAIN will be gripped by three more days of postal chaos after talks between Royal Mail and unions collapsed last night.

Around 120,000 sorting office staff and drivers were beginning the second wave of national stoppages at 4am today.

Millions of items of mail will be clogged in a huge backlog set to last well into next week, hitting customers even harder than last week’s 48 hours of strike action.

Some of 30,000 Christmas casual workers will be drafted in to clear the jam.

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Royal Mail condemned the Communication Workers Union’s failure to call off today’s industrial action and accused it of “playing havoc” with customer confidence.

The strikes will cost the UK economy an estimated £1.5billion and badly hit small businesses which are reliant on the postal service.

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Disappointingly, this madness is set to continue.

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“No one is benefiting and hard-pressed businesses are the innocent victims. With the country still in recession, this really is a poorly timed strike.”

Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said: “We have repeatedly asked for a common sense approach that allows a strike-free Christmas while we talk about the future yet even that seems too much for the CWU to accept.”

Mr Higson said Royal Mail had been on the verge of an agreement with CWU bosses but blamed internal divisions within the union for wrecking a deal over its modernisation plans.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the union had tabled a proposal yesterday which could have enabled further talks but he had not received a response from Royal Mail.