POSTAL deliveries in Liverpool are due to return to normal this morning after workers agreed to end their nine-day unofficial strike.
The decision was taken by more than 800 post staff at a meeting held at the Liner Hotel in the city centre yesterday.
About 90% of the city’s striking Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) members voted to return to work. CWU branch official Mark Walsh said: “We are obviously glad to get our members back to work, get the public’s mail out and keep negotiations about working hours on the table. There are no disciplinary issues outstanding.”
Mr Walsh said deliveries should resume by this morning, after workers returned for last night’s late shift.
Because of the national strike preceding the unofficial walkout, it has been nearly a fortnight since any mail has been delivered to most of the local area.
Postal workers in Liverpool started their unofficial strike on Wednesday last week. It affected 21 sorting offices across Merseyside, with a total of about 1,500 staff involved in the action.
The walk-out was called off after workers said they appeared to have been promised the right of local negotiation over flexible working.
Staff have been told flexible working appeared to be con- tained in the nation- al deal under dis- cussion at the TUC.
Royal Mail said it could not estimate how big the backlog of post was and how long the backlog would take to clear in Merseyside.
Following yesterday’s decision, a Royal Mail spokesman said: “We’re pleased for our customers that our people in Merseyside are returning to work this afternoon following unofficial industrial action. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused by this wildcat action, and we’ll be doing all we can to ensure the backlog of mail is delivered and our service in Merseyside returns to normal as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, fresh talks were held yesterday between both sides in the national postal workers’ dispute. A proposed deal was thrashed out last Friday between leaders of the Communication Workers Union and Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier, which included a 6.9% pay rise over two years.
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