‘We walked out at 9am today as we said we would,’ Hampstead Delivery Office Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) Unit rep John Cotier said on Saturday.
He told News Line: ‘We intend to send a letter from all our members at Hampstead to the CWU head office to tell them to stop sabotaging the ballot process with delaying tactics.’
Referring to tomorrow’s CWU Postal Executive meeting, he added: ‘There’s going to be a march by all delegates, reps and area reps on Tuesday to demand a national ballot.
‘This is a national issue, it affects everybody employed by Royal Mail and it needs a national response.
‘People should not bow down to management’s bully-boy tactics.
‘One example of the pettiness of managers was our managers closing down the canteen at 6am today and instructing the chef not to cook anything.
‘They told us we were not entitled to a break.
‘This was against The Way Forward national agreement and we informed them of that.
‘We will be out again on Monday and we resume duty on Tuesday.
‘Management have taken out ten duties.
‘But the five lads on fixed term contracts who faced termination of contract today have been reinstated.
‘This is a good victory for the branch and the CWU.
‘We are for a public sector alliance but we say to unions like Unite who organise managers they must stop their members from scabbing.
‘They should realise that once their dirty work is done they will be dropped back into the pile of dung they crawled out of’.
Hampstead CWU deputy rep John Taylor added: ‘The strike is looking good at the moment.
‘The support is still solid throughout London, even with the intimidation Royal Mail have tried to put on the members.
‘They are trying to break London with no success.
‘But it will have to be a national strike.
‘They can’t ship in enough managers to cover a national strike.
‘At the moment, we’ve got managers coming in from Gloucester.
‘Two of them were sent here to cover one of our managers’ rest day.
‘It shows Royal Mail are getting really desperate.
‘They will still fight it, though but once it goes national they’ll have no chance.
‘They are already stretched to the limit as 600 offices have balloted for industrial action.
‘I agree with a public sector alliance as the government is proceeding with privatisation all round.
‘The public sector unions should all come out and have an organised campaign.
‘Little by little isn’t working, we need one big national strike for at least a week.
‘Our battle is one we have to win, if we lose, Royal Mail would be destroyed as we know it. We can’t have that.’
