UNION officials are to launch a national campaign to try to persuade the Royal Mail to keep a sorting office in Liverpool.
It follows the announcement that Royal Mail will close its Copperas Hill sorting office in the city by 2010 and move the 580 jobs to Warrington.
The decision came after a last-ditch effort to convince Royal Mail to relocate elsewhere in Liverpool fell many millions of pounds short of being able to secure a deal.
Around 150 Communic- ation Workers Union members met yesterday to discuss the next options.
Last night, branch secretary Mark Grayson said: “We believe the Royal Mail should be working on a national package that covers the whole country.”
The union has already held a ballot for industrial action, but Mr Grayson said it would be used as and when it was needed.
In August, Royal Mail announced plans to open three modern mail centres and close other sorting offices.
It said two would be in Manchester and Preston, and its preferred option was for the third to be in Warrington, which would bring the closure of offices in Liverpool and Crewe. The company agreed to reconsider its plan following lobbying from Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman, unions, and agencies in the city.
Liverpool Vision worked up plans for two sites on the Estuary Business Park, in Speke, and on Stonebridge Park, on the East Lancs Road but at £30m it was far more expensive than the Warrington option.
