Post staff to end wildcat strike

The unofficial strike spread to Edinburgh and Glasgow

Glasgow postal workers involved in an unofficial strike have voted narrowly in favour of returning to work.

The wildcat strike began at the Glasgow Mail Centre on Tuesday before spreading to Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

More than 1,000 CWU members met in Glasgow on Thursday. Customers in central Scotland were advised not to post items unless they were urgent.

An official 24-hour walkout by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) also began on Thursday morning.

The national programme of strike action will continue with unions planning another two weeks of strike action in a further escalation of their dispute with Royal Mail.

The current period of staggered stoppages was due to end on 7 August.

'Boiled over'

The unofficial strike began at the Glasgow Mail Centre in Springburn on Tuesday before spreading throughout Greater Glasgow.

It then spread to Edinburgh, where about 100 postal workers called an unofficial strike at the city's main sorting office at Sighthill on Wednesday.

They claimed four workers had been suspended for refusing to handle mail transferred from the strike-affected Glasgow sorting office.

Later, Royal Mail confirmed that a "small proportion" of workers at the Aberdeen Mail Centre had also walked out.

It said it could not guarantee delivery over a 24 hour period due to the unofficial action at sorting offices.

Jim McKetchnie from the Communication Workers Union said workers had voted 60% in favour of returning to work from the wildcat strike.

A statement from Royal Mail said it was pleased that the "unlawful action" had ended.

"There is a backlog of mail but we are confident that we can clear this as quickly as possible," it said.

"While the unlawful action has ended, there will still be continuing official action over the next few weeks, which will cause more disruption to our customers."

The statement added: "Any strike action is not helpful and plays directly into the hands of our competitors."

The wildcat strike was called against the backdrop of a nationwide dispute over pay, pensions and future industry changes that has seen the CWU call a series of official 24-hour strikes.