Shrewsbury Royal Mail workers move closer to strike vote
Royal Mail workers at Shropshire's only sorting office, which is earmarked for closure within two years, have moved a step closer to deciding on whether to take industrial action.
The centre in Shrewsbury is due to close in 2014, with the Communication Workers' Union warning the move could cost up to 170 jobs.
Union representatives met yesterday to discuss their response and a meeting of all affected staff has now been arranged to decide on what action to take.
Sian Jones, a spokesman for the CWU, said: "They will be definitely discussing whether they want to request an industrial action ballot and also be getting people's thoughts and reaction to the decision."
A Royal Mail spokesman has said it was too early to say what the effect would be on jobs, but it hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies.
The planned closure of the sorting office means mail for Shropshire and Mid Wales will instead be sorted in Chester, Wolverhampton and Cardiff.
Royal Mail said mail volumes of items posted to addresses in the area from other parts of the country had fallen by 24.3 per cent in the last five years.
The number of items posted in Shropshire and Mid Wales to addresses outside the area had fallen by 35 per cent during the same period, they added.
See also:
'170 Royal Mail jobs to be lost' in Shrewsbury sorting office closure
Shrewsbury Royal Mail sorting office to be scrapped
