News
Talks target post strike solution
Royal Mail and union leaders are due to hold more talks aimed at ending the row over pay, conditions and modernisation.
If no deal is reached, postal workers - who staged two days of strikes last week - are planning three more walkouts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Communication Workers Union (CWU) leader Billy Hayes said he was confident of moving forward if Royal Mail was "genuinely seeking agreement".
Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said he hoped "common sense prevails".
The talks, due to start at 1000 GMT, will take place at the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which helped to resolve a dispute between the two sides in 2007.
'Total nonsense'
Royal Mail, which has shed 63,000 frontline postal staff in recent years, says it needs to further cut jobs as part of continuing modernisation plans.
The CWU agrees job cuts are necessary, but where the two sides disagree is over their extent, and the future pay and working conditions of the workers that remain.
On Sunday, Mr Crozier told the BBC's Andrew Marr show he hoped an outline deal would see the strikes cancelled.
He said the key to the talks would be a form of words to end the strike action, which the Royal Mail says was formulated last week - but not used - by a team of its representatives and CWU leaders.
The union has described the suggestion that the wording had been agreed as "total nonsense".
Mr Crozier denied accusations he was taking a back seat in the dispute and said he was not involved in the direct talks with the union because his focus was instead on talking to affected customers.
He also denied that he was taking any direction from the government.
Mr Crozier added that while he hoped an outline agreement would stop the strikes, it would take "a couple of months" to agree any final deal.
The Royal Mail says it is continuing to deal with a backlog of 30 million items after CWU members walked out on Thursday and Friday last week. The CWU puts the figure nearer to 65 million.
Reacting to the Mr Crozier's interview, CWU general secretary Mr Hayes told the BBC the union would not accept "any change by imposition".
'Encouraged'
Saying the union would not agree to any compulsory redundancies, he added: "We want change with agreement, with job security at the heart of it".
He added that, if the Royal Mail was "genuinely seeking agreement" at the fresh talks being brokered by the TUC, "I'm sure we can move forward".
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson denied suggestions by the union that he had orchestrated the Royal Mail's handling of the dispute.
He added that the talks between the Royal Mail and CWU were an opportunity to end the deadlock and that both sides should seize the opportunity.
Shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke said he expected Royal Mail privatisation to feature in the Conservative manifesto for the next general election.
He told BBC One's The Politics Show: "I'm not writing the manifesto, but I imagine the document will have this in. Our policy is to privatise the Royal Mail."
If this week's strikes go ahead, they are due to involve:
• Thursday - 43,700 staff in mail centres, delivery units in mail centres, network logistic drivers and garage staff walking out from 0400 GMT
• Friday - 400 workers at three sites in Plymouth, Stockport and Stoke, who assist mail centres by reading and entering mail addresses
• Saturday - 77,000 delivery and collection staff across the UK.
Link BBC
Posted on Monday 26th October 2009
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