Items Of Delayed Post Reach 30 Million As Managers Support Action

The postal strike has helped push a backlog of letters and parcels to 30 million items, the Royal Mail has admitted - this accordiong to the Telegraph on Line this weekend.

It also claims that not only do the Royal Mail's managers support the postal workers, but that they are "poised to join the industrial action, threatening to tip the already bitter dispute into further acrimony."

The article published Saturday 24th October goes on to say that:

" Up to 12,000 managers, who the Royal Mail hoped would help cover for striking workers, have been urged by its own union, Unite, to "give the Communication Workers Union all possible support within the law to help ensure a satisfactory settlement to the dispute."

The writers of the article, Harry Wallop and Christopher Hope go further saying:

" Unite's backing of the striking postmen is in contrast to the national strike in 2007, when most managers, who were never in dispute with the company, volunteered to help the Royal Mail keep a skeleton service going."

The article also comments on the attitude of other Trade Unions:

"Other unions also expressed their support, with nurses belonging to Unison joining a postal workers picket line in London. They insisted they did this on their own time, rather than while they were on duty."

The article continues:

" As a sign of the mounting pressure on the Royal Mail, Adam Crozier, the chief executive and one of Britain’s highest paid public servants, will give his first interview for five weeks on Sunday."

Crozier has apparently agreed to give a television interview after being accused by politicians of “going missing” for a month, being paid too highly in order to disappear and for not arguing the Royal Mail case against striking workers

The article quotes Lindsay Hoyle MP, a Labour member of the Commons’ Business committee which has oversight of Royal Mail, as saying:

“The question is why are we paying huge bonuses and salaries to Adam Crozier for him to have disappeared off the face of the earth. He should be at the forefront of the negotiations to resolve this dispute. He should be fronting up on the media to say where this is going and how long before this dispute is over. We want to hear the voice of Adam Crozier. It is the least the public can expect.”

Commenting directly on the current strike situation, the Telegraph on line article continues:

" The CWU and the Royal continued to argue over the collapse of talks and the plans of the union to hold three days of further strikes next week. The union, meanwhile, attacked the company for refusing to refer their dispute to the conciliation service. The Royal Mail said it would happily go, but only after CWU dropped its plans for strikes.

Their arguments extended to how much disruption had been caused by the first national strike in two years.

The Royal Mail said the number of items delayed by lunchtime on Friday was 30 million, the equivalent of 40 per cent of the average daily post bag. It was also an increase on the 9 million items that had been caught in the backlog caused by the series of rolling national strikes.

However, the union claimed that by the weekend well in excess of 100 million items will be affected, a figure likely to climb yet further by next weekend.

And while the CWU said support for the strike had been "overwhelming", the Royal Mail claimed that 20 per cent of its staff had turned up to work.

Next week's 24-hour strikes will involve 43,700 staff across the UK in mail centres, delivery units in mail centres, network logistic drivers and garage staff on Thursday; 400 workers in Plymouth, Stockport and Stoke who deal with poorly-addressed mail, on Friday; and 77,000 delivery and collection workers on Saturday.

By next week 8,000 of the 30,000 temporary workers will have been vetted and ready to start the emergency sorting of delayed post."

You can read the full article by clicking on the pic above.

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