Post back to normal as workers quit strike

Thousands of homes and businesses in the main urban areas of Swindon received no post yesterday after 700 workers at the Dorcan sorting office spontaneously decided to strike from Tuesday night.

Addresses in the SN1, SN2 and SN3 postal districts were affected but were all expected to receive normal deliveries again today.

The strike surprised Post Office bosses and the Communications Workers Union leaders, both of whom criticised the action.

The staff were protesting at being told to sort post which had been diverted to Swindon from the Cardiff sorting office, which was itself a week into its own industrial dispute.

Unsorted mail also went to Bristol and Oxford. The 500 staff at Oxford mimicked the strike in Swindon, while Bristol workers threatened one-day strikes from December 12.

Regional union representatives met yesterday with Post Office chiefs and by mid-afternoon, staff at Cardiff, Bristol and Oxford had all returned to work.

The CWU's national headquarters had earlier insisted it did not support the Swindon or Oxford strikes, which were called without ballots.

Post Office spokesman Richard Smith said staff would now have to work even harder to clear backlogs.

"We can only apologise to customers who have been inconvenienced by this unlawful strike, but we are confident things are now back to normal," he said.

"We are angry and very, very disappointed that our employees chose to jeopardise the service at such a busy time of year.

"There will be no disciplinary action as a result, but there will be internal communications with staff to make sure this does not happen again."

CWU spokesman Chris Proctor said the union sympathised with staff problems, but was disappointed with how they staged their protest.

"Members should always go through the proper channels, no matter how legitimate their reasons to strike," he said.

"Front line managers at the Post Office do seem to be rather heavy-handed these days, but what the workers did was unlawful."