Carrick Hit By Postal Strike

Postal workers will refuse to work in one NI delivery office this weekend.

As strikes continued in England this week - with action in Bristol Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South East of England - the delivery office in Carrickfergus will be hit this weekend.

Postal staff will not be working from the Co Antrim office this Saturday.

It follows news that strikes also took place in Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol and Leeds yesterday.

The strikes are also set to continue for the rest of the week, with planned strikes due to take place in Peterborough delivery office today (Thursday); Kings Lynn and Burslem delivery offices on Friday; delivery offices in Boston and Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland on Saturday; and Skegness delivery office in Lincolnshire and Huntingdon delivery office in Huntingdonshire on Monday.

Drivers will also strike in Peterborough on Thursday.

Dave Ward, Communication Workers Union Deputy General Secretary, accused Royal Mail of "rigging the work measurement systems to overload postal workers". He said: "Budgets are cut year on year and delivery rounds are then overloaded to match that budget. These systems were introduced to accurately determine workloads, but Royal Mail are rigging the system to ensure they meet their panic-driven cost cuts.

"The company knows the workload is unacceptable, but are bullying people to attempt to tackle impossible workloads."

Royal Mail has stressed that delivery of A-Level results would not be affected by the strikes.

A spokesperson for Royal Mail told the BBC: "We cannot understand why the union is claiming to support modernisation when it's pursuing a policy of actively opposing the changes we need to make to ensure there's a successful future for the business." The spokesperson said that the door for talks with the union also remained open.

However, Mr Ward said: "The offer of talks is welcomed, but the company has to have real dialogue. To this point, all they do is lecture us on their plans. In 2007, both parties agreed to negotiate on all aspects of modernisation and Royal Mail must return to that approach."

(KMcA/BMcC)