{"id":30698,"date":"2013-03-22T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T08:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/post-office-staff-easter-strike-083006967.html"},"modified":"2013-03-22T09:30:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T08:30:06","slug":"post-office-staff-in-easter-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/post-office-staff-in-easter-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Post Office staff in Easter strike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Workers at hundreds of Crown Post Offices are to strike on Easter Saturday in a dispute over closures, jobs and pay.<\/p>\n

Members of the Communication Workers Union will walk out for 24 hours after backing industrial action by almost 9-1.<\/p>\n

The union said up to 4,000 workers will be involved, at 373 Crown offices – the larger sites usually situated in high streets.<\/p>\n

The action is in protest at plans to close or franchise more than 70 Crown offices, as well as over pay and jobs.<\/p>\n

Picket lines will be mounted outside the offices, which handle around a fifth of Post Office business.<\/p>\n

A number of Crown offices have already been franchised to firms such as WH Smith.<\/p>\n

The union said Post Office staff have not received a pay rise since April 2011.<\/p>\n

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: “With Post Office management refusing to negotiate, and with such a huge vote in favour of strike action, we have had no choice but to serve notice for strike action.<\/p>\n

“The patience and loyalty of our Post Office members has been abused by Post Office management. This dispute is about protecting jobs and services as well as securing a fair pay increase for our members. We’re saying to the public ‘If you value your post office, support these workers on Easter Saturday and beyond’.”<\/p>\n

Andy Furey, CWU assistant secretary with responsibility for Post Office members, said: “Post Office management and their ill-conceived policies are out of touch with both its own staff and the communities it’s meant to serve. The strike on Easter Saturday will be a celebration and defence of Post Office services, especially in the towns which face losing their Crown office.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers at hundreds of Crown Post Offices are to strike on Easter Saturday in a dispute over closures, jobs and pay.
\nMembers of the Communication Workers Union will walk out for 24 hours after backing industrial action by almost 9-1.
\nThe union said up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}