Royal Mail Strikes for the Next Two Weeks

PiKe · 6 Aug 2007 at 13:29

So is it best to send mail with typed addresses at the moment so they are machine readable?

PiKe · 6 Aug 2007 at 13:48

Moses99p said:
Its best to send with typed addresses all the time, the machines just use OCR technology and a weird database. If this fails a picture is sent to a Manual Data Entry Keyer and they type in the address.

Thanks.

PiKe · 7 Aug 2007 at 15:52

The impact of official strike action for week commencing 6th August.

• Our International Hub (HWDC) is on official strike until 19.00 on Tuesday 7th August. As a result, Royal Mail's international services, Airsure, International Signed For and Airmail, will be subject to delays.

• All Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) and our Network drivers will be on official strike from 12:00 noon Tuesday 7th August till 12:00 noon on Wednesday 8th August. There may be limited bulk mail collections, but these are likely to be earlier in the day than usual.

• The following Mail Centres will be on official strike from 03:00 on Wednesday 8th August until 03:00 on Thursday 9th August: Gatwick, Reading, Crewe, Tyneside, Birmingham, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, Derby, Portsmouth, Gloucester and Dartford. Customers can continue to post items as usual on this day, but we recommend posting in Post Boxes only. There will be limited business collections in these areas on Wednesday August 8th.

• The following Delivery Offices will be on official strike from 03:00 on Wednesday 8th August until 03:00 on Thursday 9th August: Crewe; Reading; Truro; Swansea and Dartford We regret there will be limited delivery services in these areas on Wednesday 8th August. Collections will be limited to a single collection from Post Boxes outside of Post Offices, and may be earlier than the normal advertised times.

• The majority of Mail Centres will be on strike from 19:00 on Thursday 9th August until 19:00 on Friday 10th August. We suggest all customers posting mail into a Mail Centre bring their mailings forward to earlier in the week wherever possible to avoid the strike.

• This means that the following Mail Centres may be on strike for 2 days (from 03.00 on Wednesday 8th August until 03:00 on Tursday 9th August, and from 19.00 on Thursday 9th August until 19.00 on Friday 10th August ); Gatwick, Dartford, Crewe, Birmingham, Truro, Derby, Portsmouth, Gloucester and Reading. We suggest all customers posting mail into a Mail Centre bring their mailings forward to earlier in the week wherever possible to avoid the strike.

• Delivery Offices will be on official strike from 19:00 on Thursday 10th August to 19:00 on Friday 11th August. This means that there will be limited deliveries on Friday 11th August. Collections will be limited to a single collection from Post Boxes outside of Post Offices, and may be earlier than the normal advertised times.

• Collection Offices will be on official strike from 03:00 on Thursday 10th August to 03:00 on Friday 11th August. Collections will be limited to a single collection from Post Boxes outside of Post Offices, and may be earlier than the normal advertised times.

• Special Delivery Saturday Guarantee will be suspended for Saturday 11th August.
• Parcelforce Worldwide's guaranteed services will remain unaffected.
• Royal Mail's Branch Direct, Sameday and Door to Door services remain unaffected.
• All other mail services will be subject to delay.

PiKe · 10 Aug 2007 at 14:29

We are pleased to confirm that the current industrial action has been suspended. At a meeting today between Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union, it was agreed:

• That both parties commit to talks on all the issues between them, hosted and facilitated by the TUC and supported by ACAS. Both sides commit to reach an agreement by 4 September

• That during this period the talks are on a confidential basis with no media or internal briefings unless explicitly jointly agreed. The CWU Executive and Royal Mail Board will receive regular updates on progress and would also be expected to undertake this confidentiality clause

• That for that period, Royal Mail will not serve notice or take any unilateral action to impose changes by executive action

• That for the same period CWU will suspend industrial action

We aim to get back to normal as quickly as possible, and would like to apologise to all of our customers for any disruption the recent strike action has caused.

PiKe · 21 Sep 2007 at 10:07

Royal Mail said:
We are disappointed to confirm that the CWU has announced further strike action, in the form of two 48-hour strikes on October 5th - 6th, and October 8th - 9th

PiKe · 28 Sep 2007 at 15:15

Royal Mail said:
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has announced further strike action, in the form of two 48-hour strikes, from lunchtime on Thursday 4th - lunchtime on Saturday 6th October, and from the early hours of Monday 8th - early hours Wednesday 10th October.

This will be followed by an unspecified programme of weekly strikes, starting w/c October 15th, until the resolution of the dispute.

The situation is very serious, as this action will severely limit our ability to provide any services for the coming period. Customers should expect severe disruption to all postal services during the strikes and for a significant period afterwards.