One in eight letters fail to arrive as small business leaders say strike is effectively UK-wide.
Royal Mail has admitted that at any one time nine million items of post were either delayed or caught up in strike action as workers protest over job losses, pay cuts and changes to overall working conditions.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) claimed that the postal backlog, which they say totals 25 million, is now worse than the 2007 national strike, when stoppages at Royal Mail accounted for nearly two thirds of all days lost to strikes in the economy that year.
The CWU is now implementing a formal ballot of 121,000 postal workers – nearly two thirds of the workforce – to see whether there is support for a national strike which would hit deliveries across the country.
Stephen Alambritis, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said the industrial action is now a “national strike in all but name”.
“The strikes are affecting everyone – and it is more hurtful because of their sporadic nature. It is hitting small businesses from John O’ Groats to Land’s End. This is a national strike in all but name,” he said.
David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), called on the government to “get a grip” on the strikes.
“The disruption has dragged on for far too long and neither the Royal Mail nor the unions involved have shown enough leadership. The net result is that businesses are suffering at a time when they can least afford it,” he said.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009