Small businesses face potentially crippling postal delays after the union representing Royal Mail staff announced a national strike next week.
After failing to reach an agreement over pay, the Commercial Workers’ Union (CWU) yesterday announced the first national postal strike in 11 years on Friday June 29, with further possible industrial action within two weeks.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary said Royal Mail was ‘intent on cutting services, cutting jobs and cutting pay’.
Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, responded by saying: “Royal Mail will do all it can to mitigate the impact of strike action but we are very disappointed for our customers at the disruption they are now facing.”
However, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) said businesses were unconvinced by Royal Mail’s efforts to improve services for its customers.
“Many of our members are already dismayed at the service received from Royal Mail following the introduction of Pricing In Proportion,” said Natalie Evans, head of policy at the BCC.
“Any postal strike will weaken further businesses’ reliance upon Royal Mail and will act as another nail in its coffin as more competition arrives.”
One such competitor is DX, an end-to-end postal operation that focuses on the business market. The company was founded 32 years ago during another strike but is gaining ground since the industry regulator Postcomm opened the industry up to competition.
James Greenbury, chief executive officer of The DX Group told Growing Business: “Royal Mail is run by the union and will remain unmodernised unless Gordon Brown wants to start his premiership with a union bashing dispute.”
Greenbury said businesses may accept the odd one-day strike, but when it came to getting out their most important mail such as invoices, they would start to look elsewhere.
“From my own experience of running a small company, the most important thing is to get your invoices out so you get paid,” he added.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
