WINTER OF DISCONTENT
BRITAIN is facing a “winter of discontent” with strikes looming at Royal Mail, British Airways, Irish carrier Aer Lingus, and electronics giant Fujitsu.
Staff at Royal Mail yesterday voted three to one in favour of a national strike, which is set to bring misery to businesses over the Christmas period, while costing London hundreds of millions of pounds.
“Industrial action by postal workers in 2007 cost the capital more than £304m,” the London Chamber of Commerce said yesterday. “These strikes look set to be even more damaging.”
It added that the decision to strike was “akin to a death wish” for the ailing postal service.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said 81,000 members voted 3-1 in favour of striking over job security and working conditions. But Royal Mail claimed 60 per cent of UK postal workers did not take part in the vote.
Employers’ organisation the CBI also slammed the plans, and said strike action would be “disappointing”.
“After a very tough year, serious disruption to the postal service would present a real threat to those firms pinning their hopes on a pre-Christmas sales bounce,” said CBI director general John Cridland. “We need common sense to prevail and lasting damage to be avoided.”
Royal Mail and its unions have failed to reach a compromise on how best to modernise the postal service. The CWU has now given the company 10 days as a “final opportunity” to make concessions.
Meanwhile, the Unite union is set to ballot staff at IT firm Fujitsu next Monday on industrial action over a dispute about pension packages. Unite says proposed changes to the firm’s pension scheme amount to a 20 per cent pay cut for staff members.
And the airline industry is also facing misery over the winter, as Aer Lingus and BA brace themselves for the possibility of strike action over job cuts.