Postal workers vote for national strike

Mail deliveries face widespread disruption by the end of the month after postal workers yesterday voted massively in favour of strikes in a bitter row over pay, jobs and services.

Hundreds of thousands of workers in private firms and the public sector are involved in a series of disputes which could herald a winter of discontent.

Widespread strikes by different groups of workers would land the Government with a major headache as it prepares for next spring's general election.

Members of the Communi-cation Workers Union backed a nationwide walkout by 3-1 in protest at the "imposition" of changes to working practices as well as cuts in their pay and job losses, following a spate of regional strikes which have led to huge backlogs of mail in recent months.

Almost 81,000 CWU members took part in the ballot, a turnout of 67 per cent.

A total of 61,623 backed action, with 19,207 against, a majority of 76.24 per cent.

Deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: "This is a huge vote of no confidence in Royal Mail management. The company has tried to make out that problems only exist in some local offices, but postal workers across the UK have now spoken and they say no to Royal Mail's arrogance.

"Royal Mail has never really been engaged in modernisation. They've been running down the business, running down services and cutting costs, and it's that business plan that postal workers have overwhelmingly rejected today.

"There's still an opportunity to reach an agreement before any national strike action takes place.

"We need a national agreement which secures a fair deal on modernisation and reward for the efforts of postal workers in transforming the business. We want reassurances on job security, covering both redundancies and full-time/part-time ratios.

The union's leadership will meet on Monday to decide their next move, giving a "window of opportunity" for talks to head off a strike, said Mr Ward.

He also urged the Government to intervene, saying it was responsible for many of the company's problems after introducing competition earlier than elsewhere in Europe and of allowing the pensions deficit to balloon to billions of pounds.

Royal Mail condemned the CWU's plan for a national strike as "deplorable and irresponsible" and said the union's action would drive customers away from the business and undermine confidence in the entire postal services industry.

Meanwhile disputes are brewing at British Airways, drinks giant Diageo, Fujitsu, power stations sites and several local authorities in a series of rows, mainly over pay and jobs.