Royal Mail uses old Motorola plant as base for casual staff

Published on Friday 23 October 2009 10:13

THE Royal Mail is taking over the former Motorola factory in Bathgate for use by casual workers, bringing threats from striking staff that they will picket the premises.

The news comes as the Communication Workers Union said it was preparing to strike again next Thursday, Friday and Saturday if the dispute was not resolved.

The Royal Mail insisted that the use of the factory was part of an annual arrangement to cope with the Christmas rush, but said the centre would also be used to clear strike backlog if necessary.

The casual workers will be part of a 30,000-strong contingent recruited across the country to keep the mail moving.

As posties continue the second of two 24-hour strikes today, one of the strikers, Communication Workers Union area processing representative Graham Steedman, warned that the factory would be picketed if the union suspected it was being used to divert work from plants hit by industrial action.

He added: "If they're moving our work from the Edinburgh Mail Centre that could escalate the official dispute. Obviously there would be potential legal challenges to the Royal Mail by the union if they're employing agency and temporary staff to do the work of striking workers."

Preparations at the building off the A7066 are understood to be well underway, although a Royal Mail spokeswoman could not confirm how many casual workers would be employed at the site or when they would start work.

She said: "The people who will be based at Bathgate are being taken on as part of our Christmas recruitment.

"We will use it also, because we're in an industrial action situation, to clear backlog if there is one, but there is nobody there doing the work of normal postmen who are on strike. This is something we do every year."

The Centre for Economics and Business Research today predicted the dispute would cost Scottish firms around 23million a day.

Your Say: Do you support the Royal Mail strikers?

Alexander Alexander, 81, retired postman, Calder Gardens: "The unions are an obsolete relic of the past and this strike has nothing to do with the posties and everything to do with justifying the unions' existence."

Sheila Fraser, 46, publican, Beveridge Close: "They're causing a great deal of inconvenience. I think they're going to shoot themselves in the foot."