Wildcat strikes escalate

London was virtually without post today as a wildcat strike escalated massively.

More than half the capital's postal workers walked out and with feelings running high on both sides, there is little prospect of an end to the dispute.

As postal staff in Southend joined the lightning strike, Royal Mail bosses were facing the prospect of a national walkout.

Parts of London have been dogged by isolated strikes in the past fortnight with flashpoints ranging from the discovery of a dead rat in a staff lavatory to rows over pay and overtime.

Today sorting offices across the capital were dragged into the dispute as postmen and women refused to handle the backlog of mail from other affected areas.

At 10am 2,500 staff at the Mount Pleasant sorting office - London's biggest - joined the unofficial action.

Their decision means the strike now affects all post services in north, northwest, south-west, south-east, central and east London, Romford, Ilford, Dartford and Greenford. It has also hit west London, stretching from W1 to W14. Acton and Paddington are also now without post.

Union members claim that between 15,000 and 20,000 of the capital's 28,000 Royal Mail staff are now on unofficial strike.

Royal Mail admitted it had "no clear picture at the moment" of what percentage of the workforce is no longer working.

At Mount Pleasant, staff leaving the depot said they were "pleased" that they were taking action. One added: "We have been pushed into a corner by the management and have no choice."

Another said: "Until Royal Mail treat people with dignity and respect we will not go back to work."

However, some staff were unhappy to have walked out, describing the strike leaders as Trotskyist.

Some post offices in Dartford and Greenford have been on strike for more than a week in a dispute reportedly caused when a member of staff was suspended.

Yesterday Post Office chairman Allan Leighton went to a picket line in Greenford in an attempt to end the dispute but soon left after a hostile reception.

A spokesman for consumer mail group Postwatch said: "It is rapidly diving
out of control. This new wildcat strike will cause all sorts of problems.

However, today is the first time we have heard a coherent reason for why postal workers in London have walked out. Until now it has been nothing more than unrelated wildcat strikes."

Staff leaders said the main reason for all the unofficial strikes was a protest against changes to overtime and the way in which workers' views are represented.

A spokesman for the Communication Workers' Union said: "The union is not backing wildcat strike action, but neither can we deny that management provocation almost guarantees a reaction from our members.

They were humiliated when they returned to work after a day of official strike action. They had imposed upon them penalties including changes to their annual leave and overtime."