Fed members have warned that a series of concentrated strike actions by Royal Mail could be a “another nail in the coffin” for post offices.
The comments come after Royal Mail workers plan two more strikes this month on October 20 and 28.
Four days of strikes have also been earmarked for November and one for December.
Another 10 days of strikes in other parts of the operation, such as processing and distribution, are also scheduled across both of those months.
Fed member Alpesh Patel, a postmaster of 20 years and owner of Wheathampstead Post Office in St Albans, said he feared customers would turn to rival parcel services.
“My contract with the Post Office does not allow me to bring in other couriers, so there’ll be business customers who are reliant on the post office who will switch to alternatives,” he said. “I’m lucky I run other post office services than just mail, but for those running a mail-only counter it’s another nail in the coffin. They’ll already be working below minimum wage.”
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The strikes, called by members represented by the Communications Workers Union (CWU), are the latest in a continuing dispute over pay and conditions.
Mark Baker, a subpostmaster and former CWU branch rep, told Better Retailing that while postmaster attitudes to striking Royal Mail workers remained supportive to date, many were anxious of the weeks ahead.
He said: “There’s been little impact on customer purchasing of services in branches as of yet, but postmasters are dreading ‘the big one’ – the concentrated period of action, because the problem will be when branches run out of parcel storage space and have to start turning away customers.”
Baker warned that small business customers who do switch to a rival parcel courier may not return to post offices when the strike is over.
“Different sections of the chain striking on separate days will result in the maximum impact to parcel-delivery times,” he explained.
“Last time there was a strike at Royal Mail, there was a surge of demand for rivals like Evri, which just couldn’t cope with it. This time they may be better prepared.”
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Fed member Tony Buckley, who runs Buckley’s Newsagents in Lossiemouth, Moray, added he had already stopped taking in post on strike days and is increasingly concerned about the Christmas period.
“I don’t have the space for parcels to sit, so customers have been not been bringing post until the day after a strike,” he said.
“They are still choosing me over other couriers despite the delay, because they still see me as more reliable, but prolonged action may change that.”
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