Comment: Vital that city wins PO battle

Aug 6 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

ON MONDAY, the Daily Post revealed how Liverpool’s political leaders were joining forces with union chiefs to plan how to save the city’s Royal Mail sorting office.

Last night, that campaign was delivered a devastating blow by the Royal Mail, which announced its intention to shut down the Copperas Hill centre and move work to Warrington by next year.

Royal Mail proposes to close Copperas Hill and Crewe sorting centres and move them to an existing centre in Warrington which currently handles bulk mail.

The bulk mail handling will transfer to a newly-built centre in Warrington, with just three new small delivery offices being built in Liverpool to take the work that is currently handled within Copperas Hill.

The move means there could well be industrial action at Copperas Hill soon; but it also has very serious implications for the wider population of Liverpool.

Some 800 people work at Copperas Hill, 600 sorting staff and 200 on deliveries – many of these jobs will be lost to Liverpool if the sorting office were to close. That would be a huge blow to the city’s economy and must be resisted at every turn.

Of course, Copperas Hill is no stranger to uncertainty – more than a decade ago, a successful campaign was fought to keep it.

Union chiefs now admit they may have been better off fighting for new premises elsewhere in the city, but they were right to protest then and they must be prepared to make a fresh stand now to save the sorting office for Liverpool, and the jobs for their members.

However, they must not be left to fight this alone; the Royal Mail will be bracing itself for staff resistance but this issue is too big for the responsibility to lie solely with the workers.

The political and business leaders of Liverpool must now throw their weight behind the unions in the Battle of Copperas Hill – this is something that affects the whole city, and everyone should now be prepared to make a stand.