UNION leaders representing Greater Manchester's postal workers have cautiously welcomed an agreement that could end the bitter dispute disrupting deliveries since the summer.
Executives of the postal section of the Communication Workers' Union backed a settlement between union officials and Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier.
Now it will be up to the union's 130,000 members to decide whether to accept the deal on pay, pensions and flexible working arrangements.
Carl Webb, of CWU, said: "I'm pleased we have a negotiated settlement but it's got to go to the members now and it will be up to them to decide whether to accept it." Postal workers have staged several national walkouts after rejecting a pay offer of 2.5 per cent a year and warning that the Royal Mail's modernisation plans would lead to the loss of 40,000 jobs.
The two sides held marathon talks which resulted in a new offer worth about 6.7 per cent on pay over two years and local negotiations on working practices.
The dispute is believed to have cost Royal Mail tens of millions of pounds and has caused huge problems for companies, especially smaller firms.
Damaging
Chris Fletcher, of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said the dispute had been `damaging' for companies.
He said: "While it seems good news that at last a settlement has been reached, this dispute has had a damaging effect on our members, many of whom are small businesses utterly reliant on Royal Mail. It will be interesting to see what effect this has longer term on Royal Mail as many businesses have explored alternatives during the dispute. Some may continue to use these in the future."
Matthew Knowles, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "This strike has been devastating for small businesses who rely almost entirely on the Royal Mail. We are pleased to see a light at the end of this very long tunnel.
"Small firms are not seen as lucrative contracts by the other mail providers and so they have been left high and dry during this dispute, waiting to receive payments and send out products or invoices.
"We hope that the CWU members endorse this deal and that both sides can work to prevent these disputes from happening again.
"Small businesses employ over 12 million people so many thousands of jobs have been put at risk by this strike."
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Post deal welcomed
October 23, 2007
DEAL: Workers back settlement
Showing comments 1 to 6 and replies | View All
Beaufort (23/10/2007 at 10:57)
I have had several very important letters go astray whilst this debacle was allowed to carry on.
If you strike you should be sacked. There are plenty of people who could replace them. Perhpas that chap who created a 'prank' at the World Cup final could get his hands dirty for once.
I used to enjoy recieving my correspondances at 8am but now must wait until 2.30pm. That is not good as I usually nap then and it is unlikely that I read my mail until the evening. If I had something important to tend to I would have missed the boat until the following day.
Absolutely infuriating.
marc (23/10/2007 at 11:04)
Macca (23/10/2007 at 13:45)
and i'm quite certain the latest deal, ratified by the union or not, will be voted against, the major sticking points, the pensions rip off and the changes in working practices have not been resolved, it looks like the CWU have been given a back hander to have accepted this rubbish, when i retire, i will have put in 44 years (if Royal Mail get their way and increase retirement age from 60 to 65) and i will be 7 - 8,000 pounds a year worse off on my pension,
thats why we are striking, we will work 5 years longer, pay 2% more of our wages into the pension, and then get ripped off when we retire, some posties could lose upto 60,000 quid,
all because of a deficit which is the governments responsibility.
bluefield, chesterfield (23/10/2007 at 15:39)
Kevin from Hulme, Manchester Hulme (23/10/2007 at 22:22)
Bring back flogging (24/10/2007 at 11:45)