Giant postcard comes to Glasgow

14 July 2016

For immediate release

Giant postcard comes to Glasgow

On Monday 18 July a giant 20 foot postcard will appear in George Square, Glasgow. Postal workers and politicians will be raising awareness of the crisis facing the Post Office which is pursuing an aggressive closure and privatisation programme. The postcard will be on the side of a double decker bus and carries a message to Business Secretary Sajid Javid asking the government to “protect the heart of the High Street”.

The Post Office has announced the closure of 64 Crown post offices this year already – including Duke Street and Springburn Way in Glasgow, Kilmarnock and East Kilbride locally – bringing hundreds of job losses and cutting services to communities across the country. The Communication Workers Union – which represents Post Office staff and workers across the postal sector – has called for a strike ballot in response to the latest cuts.

Dave Ward, CWU general secretary, said: “Our Post Office is in crisis. Closures and privatisation are rife, thousands of jobs are being lost and millions of pounds of public money is being misspent by the gross mismanagement of company bosses.

“The company has been quietly but systematically closing and privatising our post offices and flogging the real estate. The government has allowed this in the face of public opposition and without any legislation or decision of parliament. The British people are being robbed of a public asset and public service by the drip-drip of closures, franchises and cuts to jobs and services.

“The post office as we know it is on the brink of extinction. We’re asking the government to act now to protect the heart of the High Street.”

Photo call: 2pm, George Square, Glasgow

The bus will then travel on to Paisley for 4:30pm where £440,000 of public money has been spent on refurbishing the post office which is now set for closure.

The double decker bus and postcard is visiting venues in Scotland, England and Wales over the course of a week, including: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, Manchester, St Helens, Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Cardiff, Bristol and London.

Follow the bus tour on our website: www-cwu-org.www.cwu.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThecommunicationsUnion/ and on Twitter #PeoplesPost @CWUnews

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For more information please contact:

Sian Jones, press officer, t: 020 8971 7267, m: 07793 314249, e: sbjones@cwu.org

Ramona McCartney (on location), e:rmccartney@cwu.org m:079 3359 4080

Crown offices are the ones directly owned and managed by the Post Office Ltd. They tend to be the big town centre offices with multiple windows and queueing systems.

Total closures/franchises: 64

England (49):

Banbury, Beckenham (SE London), Beeston (Nottingham), Blackfriars Road (London), Bognor Regis, Bransholme (Hull), Bromsgrove, Bury St Edmonds, Cirencester Town, Crouch End (N London), Dingle (Merseyside), Dunmow (Essex), Durham, Felixstowe (Suffolk), Finsbury Park (London), Halifax, Harborne (Birmingham), Harlow (Essex), Harold Hill (East London), Harpenden (St Albans, Herts), Hartlepool, Headingley (Leeds), Honiton (Exeter), Kingstanding (Birmingham), Kingsland High Street (London), Lancaster, Leigh Park (Portsmouth), Lewes, Longton (Stoke on Trent), Lower Edmonton (N London), Maidenhead, Muswell Hill (N London), Newhaven (East Sussex), Penzance, Peterborough City, Pinner (NW London), Rye Lane (Peckham), Sheerness (Kent), South Ockendon (Essex), St Andrews Cross (Plymouth), St Austell, St Johns Wood (Leeds), St Leonards on Sea (East Sussex), Sudbury (Suffolk), Sydenham (SE London), Wakefield, Walworth Road (SE London), Waterlooville (Portsmouth), Willenhall (Birmingham)

Northern Ireland (3):

Antrim, Londonderry, Shaftesbury Square (Belfast)

Scotland (6):

Frederick Street in Edinburgh, Duke Street and Springburn Way in Glasgow, Kilmarnock, East Kilbride and Paisley

Wales (6):

Aberystwyth, Barry, Denbigh, Holywell, Llangefni, Morriston