Postal strikes cause major disruptions for small Edinburgh businesses

The ongoing Royal Mail strikes are expected to leave many businesses struggling to keep up with with demand and individuals feeling the effects according to experts.

Postal workers went on strike last week after the Communication Worker’s Union (CWU), which represents postal workers, failed to reconcile with Royal Mail after disagreeing on a number of issues.

Stuart Mackinnon, a spokesman from the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, told The Journal: “Seventy percent of small businesses rely on Royal Mail for more than half of their business post, so it is no wonder that many small firms up and down the country are concerned about what a postal strike could mean for them.”

He continued: “The cash flow of many small firms, in Edinburgh and nationally relies upon timely payment and many customers send invoices and cheques in the post. Delays in receiving this important paperwork could make life very difficult, and be very expensive, for those businesses.”

The first national strikes since 2007 took place on the 22 and 23 October after the two sides failed to come to an agreement. More strikes are expected.

Royal Mail recently recruited over thirty thousand temporary staff in order to deal with their backlog of post. The CWU are now threatening to take legal action, as recruiting new employees to do the work of those on strike is illegal according to employment law.

UK manager of Coco Chocolate, Kristina Currie, a luxury chocolate shop in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, is concerned about the strikes and their potential affect on the UK company’s mail order service. She told The Journal:

“We indeed have been affected by postal strikes in the past. We use Royal Mail to send out all of our internet orders that come from the UK. This means we use Royal Mail everyday.

“We also advertise a quick service, so when there are strikes and our orders are delayed we receive complaints from our customers.

“We are now considering going with a private company for our Christmas orders to ensure delivery."

Jean Wood, Manager of Oxfam in Morningside, Edinburgh, expressed similar worries to The Journal, explaining that “recent campaign posters were possibly late” because of postal issues.

Ms Wood continued: “We know posters make an impact on the public and if they do not arrive in time an event and its impact may be adversely affected.”

Many Edinburgh students who rely on the post for books have already been affected by the strikes.

Lauren Mcphee, a student at Edinburgh Napier University told The Journal: “Some of the books and packages I ordered online have taken took almost two weeks to arrive. I would often wait for the postman and he/she would arrive without packages for me, or not arrive at all.”

She continued: “Although I hope the strikes won’t affect me anymore, I think it will definitely affect others because it will produce a backlog.”

Muriel Tomlinson, a student from the University of Edinburgh, has faced similar problems as a result of the backlogging caused by the Royal Mail strikes. She told The Journal: “My dad sent a parcel of my clothes from home by first class delivery costing over £8. After a week I began to get worried so I went to the Edinburgh South sorting office, which is just round the corner from my flat.

“The man on the desk said that they were very short staffed and said he had eight cages of packages in the back that he hadn't even begun to think about sorting yet, but he reassured me it was almost definitely in there and I would get it eventually. I finally got my parcel almost two weeks after it was sent."

A previous strike in 2007 ended when the CWU and Royal Mail signed ‘The Pay and Modernisation Agreement’. The CWU have accused Royal Mail of not being willing to carry out the final phase of the deal.

As a result, the CWU is worried about its member’s job security as modernisation plans could mean the loss of jobs in the future. Royal Mail denies refusing to take part in discussions with the CWU but have admitted that because of financial losses, cuts are “inevitable".

At the beginning of October, postal workers nationally voted to take strike action. There have already been a number of walkouts in Edinburgh and London.

Eighty one thousand members of the CWU took part in the recent ballot and the vast majority backed the strikes that have already caused Royal Mail huge disruptions and significant financial losses.

The CWU recently reported on their website that a secret internal Royal Mail document suggested that the company wanted to “sideline the union".

The document also stressed: “Royal Mail is prepared to continue with non-agreement and makes threats about taking facility time away from CWU reps.”

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU, deemed the document "a cynical attempt to de-recognize the union."

The Royal Mail’s Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, said that the CWU have embarked on “an appalling and unjustified attack on customers."