Members’ distress as more Crowns face the axe

Postal, Post Office (PO)

Workers at three more Crown post offices were told this week that they face privatisation, bringing the total number of franchise announcements to eight since the start of 2020.

Offices in the south Wales town of Abergavenny, New Malden in Surrey and Keynsham (Somerset) are set to have their work handed over to retailer ZCO Ltd, along with their colleagues at Diss in Norfolk, Dorking (Surrey) and Haverhill (Suffolk) who were told the news last week.

Also last week, Crown staff in Edinburgh and Stockport were informed that their jobs will be transferred to Chris Allan and Safmail Ltd respectively.

“We now have 61 employees in distress and deeply worried and concerned about their futures,” said CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey.

“This franchising process is just privatisation by the back door and it amounts to the piecemeal destruction of the Crown Office Network in this country.”

As well as continuing to call for an end to franchising, the union is also demanding that the company reveal its full intended strategy so that the CWU is able to propose viable alternatives.

“This drip-drip approach seems to be turning into a regular weekly occurrence – with Tuesday mornings increasinglybecoming ‘franchise day’ for our members, who are turning up for work dreading the potential bad news.

“It is deeply distressing for our members and a cause of great anxiety for these hard-working employees who don’t know whether they will have a job in the Post Office in the future – and we are now demanding, at the very least, that the company must be open and transparent with their overall strategy.”

In the meantime, while the CWU continues to bring pressure to bear on the business to change its direction, members and branches are being encouraged to contact the Members of Parliament for the areas affected so far.

Diss – Richard Bacon,

Dorking – Paul Beresford,

Edinburgh – Diedre Brock,

Haverhill – Matt Hancock,

Stockport – Navendu Mishra,

Abergavenny – David Davies,

Keynsham – Jacob Rees-Mogg,

New Malden – Ed Davey

“If we can get these local MPs onside here, along with support from local residents and small businesses, then we might be able to at least make our objections widely heard and perhaps change attitudes,” says Andy.

“The Crown Network is not safe in the hands of the Post Office Board and we need to work together to try to Save Our Post Office.”