Postal workers begin two-day national strike

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/22/post-national-strike-begins

Postal workers formed picket lines across the country today, ignoring politicians who urged the Communications Workers Union to abandon the two-day strike and return to the negotiating table. Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers launched a 24-hour strike, while 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, urged postal workers and management to "sit round a table". Brown, who was speaking during a walkabout in the centre of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said he believed the dispute could be resolved but warned the strike was putting jobs at risk.

The industrial action is expected to cause a huge backlog of mail, just two years after the last national postal strike. Deliveries have been badly hit in parts of the country in recent months because of regional walkouts.

CWU members voted by 3-1 in favour of a national strike in a ballot complaining that jobs were being axed, pay cut and working conditions made worse. Royal Mail maintained it was merely modernising the business in line with an agreement reached to resolve the last national strike. HM Revenue & Customs was urged not to fine people who are late submitting their tax returns because of the strike.

Arthur Scargill's biggest mistake was his belief that Thatcher and the Tories would not be prepared to see the British coal mining industry ruined in their pursuit of the breaking of union power. He was wrong.

I have a very bad feeling that something similar may apply to this dispute.

We've got bus strikes, firefighter strikes and postal worker strikes.

I used to be a CWU member myself and if truth be told, industrial relations at Royal Mail are abysmal and have been that way for years.