LONDON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Britain's postal workers union on Wednesday threatened a nationwide strike over plans to cut as many as 30,000 post office jobs in an attempt to save nearly $2 billion.
The union gave Consignia, formerly the U.K. Post Office and now the company that operates the nation's postal service, until midday Thursday to withdraw the threat to trim its work force. If the plan was not taken back, the union said it would consider calling a strike vote.
The cutbacks are the key to Consignia's 2-year plan to save an estimated $1.7 billion in the face of stiff competition that already has seen it record a $400 million loss in the first six months of this year, with operating costs alone quadrupling to $142 million.
Consignia Chief Executive John Roberts told Parliament on Tuesday that "we haven't finalized numbers we are looking at if we produce" the $1.7 billion in savings, but "we could be looking at anything up to 30,000" job losses over the next 18 months.
That would amount to 15 percent of the postal service's 200,000 employees.
The Communications Workers Union promised it would delay any industrial action until after the holiday season.
"We are making it clear that there will be no strike before Christmas," said CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie.
"But unless they (Consignia) change their view, we will have to take strike action to defend the service in the long term for the customer," Keggie added.
Union leaders had thought the company was considering cutting up to 15,000 jobs and said the figure of 30,000 from management had come as "a bolt from the blue."
"Cutting 30,000 jobs would be a huge chunk of the work force," said Keggie. "It is extremely disappointing that the (company) board has refused to share this kind of information with the union."
Roberts had blamed the company's financial woes on a combination of the global economic slowdown and the costs and delays to the postal service as the result of a series of railroad accidents that have crippled Britain's rail system.
He added mobile phone text messaging had cut into the post office's business, with up to 1 percent of its annual volume of deliveries lost to this method of keeping in touch.
