Posties: 'We did not want to strike'
LOW morale, service cuts and poor communication between managers and staff are key factors behind industrial action being staged by postal workers.
That's according to union members manning the picket lines.
Members of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) voted in favour of the action earlier this month because they believe Royal Mail modernisation plans are being pushed through without negotiation and leading to cuts in jobs, pay and services.
Because delivery and mail centre functions come under one roof at Royal Mail's Weston Road depot in Crewe, 700 staff there walked out yesterday.
Steve Wright, CWU branch secretary for South Cheshire, pictured, said: "We were hoping all the way through Wednesday night that an agreement could be reached so striking wasn't needed. We are still hoping there will be a resolution before it gets too silly."
He added: "Modernisation by agreement is fine but by dictation is not."
The Crewe mail centre faces an uncertain future as Royal Mail wants to transfer 460 workers to Warrington.
Royal Mail announced plans to move jobs from Weston Road to Warrington in May 2008 and a dispute has been running ever since.
The firm says the site is unviable but workers feel they are being shown no consideration.
It mirrors the situation in Stoke where the sorting office closed last month and work shifted to Wolverhampton.
Mr Wright added: "All Royal Mail is interested in is filling Warrington up. They will decimate Crewe the way they have Stoke."
One of the workers, who asked not to be named, said: "Morale at the centre in Crewe is at an all-time low. The managers talk to us like we are kids. It is supposed to be a caring company but we feel it isn't at all."
He added: "It's not about pay, it's about conditions and pension. We sympathise with the public and are apologetic."
Another worker, who also asked to remain anonymous, said: "It is annoying when people say they don't know why we are striking. It's about services and how we are treated.
"It is not the union that is closing post offices and cutting services, it is Royal Mail."
In contrast to the rest of the country, employees at Weston Road were back at work as normal today when 78,000 collection and delivery staff were due to go on strike.
However depots in Stoke, Burslem, Hanley, Newcastle, Kidsgrove, Biddulph, Leek, Cheadle, Uttoxeter, Stone and Stafford are all expected to walk out.
Picket lines are also expected to be manned at smaller bases in places such as Stockton Brook and Barlaston.
Post Office branches and Parcelforce are not affected.
The Royal Mail condemned the decision to go ahead with the "wholly unjustified" strikes and said it was willing to keep on talking.
The company said it had made a "reasoned and sensible" proposal which it said would have averted the strike action and provided a period of calm in the run-up to Christmas.
Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said: "Over the last day or two we have tried to persuade the CWU that there is a way forward and that proposal was sent formally in a letter.
"But despite the fact that the CWU agreed to take that solution to their national executive yesterday, the union has yet again failed to honour its commitment to call off strikes in return for a period of no change and has shown again an intention to inflict as much damage as it can on the postal service and on our customers."
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