Officials of the Post Office's Communication Workers Union are up in arms about the recently agreed deal with Management and are planning to show their dismay with senior union officials by walking out on all union activities for 24 hours beginning on Monday.
CWU officials - who are allowed to spend an agreed amount of their working week on Union matters and also receive a very nice expense allowance - will not distribute union related literature or advise members on employment matters during the walkout. They will also man a picketline in front of the headquarters of the CWU in order to bring public attention to the poor working practice of the Union Leadership.
"This will show the leaders of the Communication Workers Union that its members will not tolerate having poor working conditions and inflexible hours imposed upon us without consultation and subsequent final agreement of our real demands," said a Union Member.
The dispute between Union Leadership and its members has arisen itself out of a dispute between the junk mail distribution service and the CWU when the Royal Mail tried to impose conditions such as 'working' for a 'full week' and 'only getting paid for the hours that staff worked'. The CWU called for industrial action in an effort to force the Royal Mail's hand and stop it from imposing these draconian measures.
Despite the seemingly impossible hope of resolution post office workers were optimistic.
"They'll soon realise that they need our services. Who else is going to deliver Reader's Digest Competitions? And people don't really use email - its just apassing fad," said one Post Office worker yesterday.
"Striking is the only way forward." said another picketer. "It worked for the car industry in the seventies and for the coal miners in the eighties. And look where they are now."
