Great Britain: towards the first strike in eleven years at Royal Mail

After several weeks' negotiations, postal workers announced that they intended to go on a 24-hour strike this week, which is a first at Royal Mail for eleven years. The conflict is about wage increases and a plan to modernize the public company which plans the shutdown of 70 main post offices and the subcontracting of their activity to a bookstore chain which, according to the sector's trade union the CWU, should lead to a worsening of the service and the suppression of 40.000 jobs in the long run. This conflict will serve as a test for the future Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose nomination will come two days after the conflict. (Ref. 070556)
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The work stoppage of 130.000 members of Communication Workers Union (CWU), in storehouses and offices, should paralyze the postal service on June 29. Royal Mail deems that this strike is only going to worsen the threatening competition problems. The company is experiencing difficulties since the postal sector was completely liberalized on January 1, 2006. Its new competitors already took 40% of the company mail market, which represents 90% of all mail. The post office lost contracts such as Bri

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