U.K. Mail Strikes Cost London 500 Million Pounds, Chamber Says
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The strikes at Royal Mail Group Plc have cost London businesses 500 million pounds ($817 million) and are delaying the U.K. capital’s economic recovery, the city’s Chamber of Commerce said.
The figure includes 200 million pounds in extra costs incurred during two days of national strikes last week by the Communication Workers Union and the rest from a series of local walkouts in London since the summer, the chamber said in a statement on its Web site today. The estimate is based on a survey of members.
“This is a colossal amount of money for the London economy to lose and will delay the capital’s economic recovery,” said Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the business group. The extra costs include the use of couriers and the delay to payments and to consumer spending, he said.
Negotiators from Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union met today for talks arranged by the Trades Union Congress. The union has threatened three days of additional strikes starting on Oct. 29 in a dispute over job security and work rules as Royal Mail installs equipment to boost productivity.
“We do want to make progress today,” Dave Ward, a union official, told reporters before the session began.
Stanbridge called for Peter Mandelson, the government’s business secretary, to personally “broker a deal,” something that Mandelson said last week he wouldn’t do.
The chamber has 3,000 member companies in the U.K. capital.
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