MORE THAN 120,000 Royal Mail staff are to go on strike throughout the United Kingdom today and tomorrow, in a major escalation of a battle over modernisation of the troubled State-owned postal company.
Last night, the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) accused the British government and senior Royal Mail management of colluding to prevent negotiations, which lasted for 30 hours this week, from succeeding.
The two days of all-out strikes throughout the UK, including Northern Ireland, will be followed by a similar number next week, once the CWU has complied with legal obligations to give notice to the company.
Head of the union Billy Hayes launched a strong attack on the business and skills secretary Peter Mandelson, accusing him of being “the minister without responsibility” and being in alliance with management.
Expressing “deep regret” about the decision to strike, which follows weeks of intermittent industrial action that has held up tens of millions of letters and parcels, Mr Mandelson said it was not in the best interests of the company, the workforce or customers.
Thirty key sorting centres will be picketed by the union, which is angry at the Royal Mail’s attempt to force through increased automated sorting of letters and alter staff’s working times and conditions.
Facing questions from Conservative Party leader David Cameron in the House of Commons, prime minister Gordon Brown urged both sides to go to the strike mediation agency, Acas.
However, Royal Mail, which warns that modernisation is vital if the company is to survive falling mail volumes and increasing competition from private companies, is refusing to do so until the union drops its strike plans.
The Conservative leader accused the prime minister of “an appalling display of weakness” by allowing Labour backbenchers to derail legislation piloted by Mr Mandelson that would have allowed Royal Mail to accept private investment.
During prime minister’s question time, Mr Cameron said it required “leadership, some backbone and some courage” to prevent union militancy – traits, that Gordon Brown did not have to offer”.
In the latest blow to the company, the devolved Scottish government took an £8 million postal contract to deliver Scotland’s national health service and local councils’ mail away from Royal Mail and awarded it to its Dutch competitor TNT.
Royal Mail’s managing director, Mark Higson, said the strikes were “totally unjustified” and urged the CWU to agree to “a strike-free period of calm” that would allow time for negotiation in the run-up to Christmas.
The strike, which occurs on the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike, has the potential to be one of the most damaging and bitter in recent British history, and threatens relations between the CWU and the Labour Party.
Tempers have been fuelled by Royal Mail’s announcement that it will hire 30,000 temporary staff for the Christmas period – twice the normal number, and leading to charges that it intends to use “scab” labour to break the strike.