For the last two weeks unofficial strikes have swept through Scotland as drivers have refused to cross picketlines – guess they didn’t get the ten letters from Billy Hayes instructing us not to do exactly that. Management’s attempts to punish them, sending them home and suspending pay, saw the Glasgow mail centre walkout first with up to 14 offices following suit on Friday 18 September, and again on the Monday. Then the action spread to Edinburgh as workers walked out in the South East delivery office last Friday over managers sending a driver home for…refusing to cross the Sighthill Mail Centre’s official picketlines (when will they ever learn).

Then again on this Monday Sighthill walked out over management’s unagreed changes.  Managers tried to force drivers to cross their picketlines for missorts!!  As one worker said “There was only maybe 1,000 pieces of mis-sorted mail to be collected. The managers could’ve collected it themselves but they were trying to force the drivers to cross the picket line and they wouldn’t do it.”

Serves these pumped up little dictators right for throwing their weight around.  After all if they’re so desperate to keep up their quality stats why don’t they just fiddle the books like a normal Royal Mail manager!

Glasgow refused to obey instructions to cross picketlines in 2007 too, sparking mass walkouts down to the North of England in their defence, forcing Royal Mail to back down on victimisations.   Posties everywhere should take a line out of the Glasgow play book, and refuse to “work normally”, whether on strike or no, if it means handling strike mail or crossing picketlines.