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Town's postal workers remain solid

Laura Shannon
9/10/2007

POSTAL workers in Rochdale finish their strike action on Wednesday after just under a week of action over working and pay conditions.

Despite claims from Royal Mail that support was weakening between members of the Communication Workers’ Union on a national basis, a spokesman for Rochdale’s offices said the region remained committed to the industrial action.

Ted Stead, secretary for the Oldham and Rochdale branch of the Communication Workers’ Union, said: “The strike action in Rochdale was as strong as ever.

“Under five people each day broke the strike action out of a 230-strong work force.

“Strikers in Rochdale have been absolutely solid.

“Undoubtedly there will be a backlog of post, but hopefully we can get that cleared by the weekend.”

Mr Stead cited new working hours as the main reason for the strike, along with the threat of 20 to 30 job losses in Rochdale due to new machinery.

He added: “They are thinking of introducing 30-hour working weeks for the summer and 48 hour weeks for the winter. It just won’t work.

“In terms of the machinery, by all means bring it in and let us have a look at it. We can see if it works before deciding to axe jobs.

“Hopefully, these recent strike actions have triggered proper negotiations.”

He added that if the dispute continued beyond the weekend there would be daily strikes on a weekly basis, starting on Monday, until all issues were resolved.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: “The level of backlog of post in Rochdale would be very difficult to determine.

“Although we are trying to move as much mail around the country and deliver as much mail as we can there will be some considerable disruption to the service we provide.”


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Most recent 2 of 2 user comments

   Fed up with posties striking. They work hard yes and its a demanding job and it keeps you fit and they work in poor and often real bad weather conditions. My point is they claim over time and do say 30 mins in a 3 hour time and then sit down and chat play cards and no work is being done at all. I know this as my friend is a post man and he even nips to the pub with a lot of them and has been doing this for years. If i was his boss he would be sacked on the spot. ! other point theres alot of polish people in rochdale at this moment in time and they work in places of work for a poor,poor wage and would relish earning good wages well above the minimum wage,so watch out or you might be looking at a influx of polish post men and woman in the coming futre,and the poles are hard graters.
ya know its right, rochdale
16/10/2007 at 11:31
   I am the wife of a poastal worker in Rochdale and are shocked at the abuse my husband and his work mates are recieving from members of the public. I can understand the disruption and cost the postal strike is having upon busineses but if the postal workers do not stand together upon this matter the Royal Mail Group will just bully there workforce out of there jobs. I work part time and will strugle without my husbands full time wage but if we let the company get there own way my husband will have no alternative but to seek alternative employment. My husband turned into work at 5am an wednesday to be told that he was not needed untill 7am, when he went into work on the thursday at 7am he was told he should have gone to work at 6.15am. If nobody tells the post workers what time to be in work for they are not mind readers. The change in hours is a big issue when it comes down to childcare and other jobs which the postworkers do in an afternoon.postal workers have passed customers complaints onto there managers who just say well let them use another service. Is this the attitude you want from Royal Mail as a bussiness who from comments made obviously do not value your custom even when you as the general public support them.

I would like to say I support the postal workers all the way, STAND TOGETHER AND DONT GIVE IN.
buster 676
12/10/2007 at 14:15
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