What is the state of industrial relations at the Royal Mail?
The stoppage reflected the sharp deterioration in industrial relations at the company, which has laid off thousands of workers as part of a restructuring operation. In an example of the bad blood, peace talks last week were switched after union negotiators refused to cross a picket line at an adjoining sorting office. Adam Crozier, the Royal Mail’s chief executive, accused militants of trying to blackmail the company into conceding a £4,000-a-year London weighting allowance after a narrow vote against national action to secure a basic £300 a week in September. What did the unions say? They accused the Royal Mail of using the national vote to impose sweeping changes, and of deliberately orchestrating the current confrontation by deploying “bouncers” to intimidate strikers. The CWU also blamed “heavy-handed” managers for an “aggressive bullying attitude” when staff returned after a second one-day strike in London on October 16, a stoppage that was called after a legal ballot. What did ba
