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The 2009 Royal Mail industrial disputes is an industrial dispute in the United Kingdom involving Royal Mail and members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which began in the summer of 2009. It was the country's first industrial action involving postal workers since 2007 and came about after the Communication Workers Union accused Royal Mail of refusing to enter into dialogue regarding how the implementation of modernisation plans would affect the job security of postal workers. The strike action began on a local level after postal workers at Royal Mail offices in London and Edinburgh accused their bosses of cutting jobs and services, which they claimed broke the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement, the agreement that was struck to end the 2007 strikes, and accused Royal Mail of threatening modernisation of the service. After a series of localised walkouts over the summer months, and after failing to reach an agreement, the CWU opened a national ballot for industrial action in September 2009. On 8 October, it was announced that postal workers had voted three to one in favour of taking strike action over job security and working conditions. It was later announced that a national strike would be held on Thursday 22 October and Friday 23 October. After further talks failed, more strikes were announced to take place on Thursday 29 October, Friday 30 October and Saturday 31 October. Discussions continued throughout the second wave of strikes with proposals being put to both sides, but these were overshadowed by the announcement of a third walkout on Friday 6 November and Monday 9 November. However, on 5 November it was announced that strikes had been called off until the New Year to allow time for fresh talks to take place. A resolution to the dispute was finally reached following lengthy discussions on 8 March 2010, and on 27 April it was reported that postal workers voted to accept the deal. ==Background== Central to the 2009 dispute was the agreement that ended the 2007 round of strikes. The 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement saw the parties involved agree to a four-phase plan, which would be implemented with dialogue between both sides at each stage of the process. However, the Communication Workers Union said that although Royal Mail had carried out three of the phases in this way, it had refused to discuss the final phase, which concerned the government's plans for modernisation, and how these would affect the job security of Royal Mail employees.〔 One of the key aspects of Royal Mail's modernisation drive involved the introduction of the walk sequencing machine that organises mail into the order the postman will deliver them on his round. The union feared that a national introduction of this equipment would lead to thousands of full-time workers being made redundant and a significant increase in the number of part-time staff. The Communication Workers Union argued that although it had signed up to this part of the agreement in 2007 and that the plans would make it necessary for some jobs to be lost, it had not understood the exact nature of Royal Mail's plan. Furthermore, the union said that when Royal Mail stopped talking to staff about the long-term effects of job security, there had been no choice other than to threaten a strike to restart discussions. Royal Mail, on the other hand, said that it had not stopped talking to the union and continued to involve it in its modernisation strategy.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2009 Royal Mail industrial disputes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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