Christmas Chaos Around Postal Strike

Millions of cards and presents could arrive late for Christmas if postal workers go on strike. Postal workers are in favour of a national strike in a protracted row over jobs, pay and services that threaten to throw Royal Mail deliveries into chaos in the run up to Christmas.

Christmas Strike:

Around 120 million letters and parcels are sent every day in December, so a postal strike at this time couldn’t come at a more damaging date. So far is has been reported that 9 million items have been delayed already, and many more are expected.

Furious industry leaders have turned on postal workers, insisting a decision to strike nationally could have catastrophic consequences for an economy struggling to survive. Small and online retail firms in particular could be crippled by "deplorable" industrial action at Royal Mail in the lead up to Christmas.

The Royal Mail has already lost a lucrative delivery contract with ¬shopping website Amazon while the internet retail group IMRG yesterday said many web-based businesses would simply use other delivery firms during the national walkout.

Amazon, which supplies books, DVD’s and a huge range of other goods, says that free postage orders must be placed by December 18th, the day before the strike to arrive before Christmas. Many shoppers rely on Amazon to buy their entire Christmas present list; in 2008 nearly one million items were ordered on a single day.

There's still an opportunity to reach an agreement before any national strike action takes place. There needs to be a national agreement which secures a fair deal on modernization and reward for the efforts of postal workers in transforming the business. We want reassurances on job security, covering both redundancies and full-time/part-time ratios.

Result of the postal strike ballot:

With Christmas closing in the results of the ballot are leaving shoppers in a panic whether or not there Christmas gifts are going to be delivered in time or not.

So far Royal Mail workers have voted in favour of a national strike. Almost 81,000 CWU members took part in the ballot, a turnout of 67%. A total of 61,623 backed strikes, with 19,207 against, a majority of almost 77%. Although there's still an opportunity to reach an agreement before any national strike action takes place.

The recent regional strikes have already left thousands of families and businesses facing bank penalty charges for late bill payments and threaten to disrupt the secondary school admissions process. A nationwide strike would effectively see the postal service grind to a halt. Business groups have already claimed that the strike could cost the economy £200million. The last national postal strike in October 2007 left an estimated 200 million letters and parcels caught in the backlog.

With the threat of a strike closing in and stress of Christmas just around the corner, it’s no wonder frenzied shoppers are seeing this as a Christmas Chaos Crisis.

- K.J.N -