Postmen vow to continue strike (with video)
Postal workers have vowed to stay on strike "as long as it takes" in a fight to protect Royal Mail.
More than 650 staff at the Preston Mail Centre on Pittman Way, Fulwood, took part in the first day of strike action on Thursday, with 3,200 more due to walk out from delivery offices the following day.
Officials from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have hit back at "misinformation" put out by management and the Government and insist they are willing to change to tackle the threat to the post.
Royal Mail bosses told the union their door remains open to hold talks to "bring some peace" as it prepares for the start of the Christmas delivery rush.
Barry Bowes, 48, of Fulwood, who has been a postal worker 28 years, said the union had the support of 95% of staff at the Preston centre for a strike, despite what he describes as a campaign from management to vote against it.
He said: "I would like to be back in work today, if the business was willing to sit down and make an agreement which safeguards our jobs and the future of the industry.
"We will do what we have to do because, at the end of the day, I can take a few days off in a week, but if I do not have a job it does not make a difference."
Union rep Lenny Crook, 48, of Leyland, said: "If you look in the mail centre you will see brand new machinery which has been put there through agreement with the union, so we are not against change.
"But it is modernisation in a progressive way which we want, not something which completely disenfranchises the Royal Mail as a public service and turns it into a money-making organisation."
Another worker, who has two decades service with Royal Mail, said he was willing to stay on the picket line "as long as it takes" because of his concern over the changes being brought in.
Workers at offices on Christian Road, Preston, Braconash Road, Leyland, Whitefield Meadow, Bamber Bridge, Freckleton Road, Kirkham and the Chorley East Business Centre were taking part in a second day of action on Friday.
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Weather for Preston
Friday 03 September 2010
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