UK postal strike set for Thursday, Friday met with mixed responses

Posted by Lauren McTigue on 10/21/09 • Categorized as Conflict, Europe

Royal Mail’s postal strike is now set for Thursday and Friday after failed attempts by the British government to discourage the strikes.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that there will be more than 40,000 workers striking Thursday, and nearly 80,000 set to strike Friday. The workers are seeking better pay, conditions, and a better way of dealing with modernization, namely e-mail.

News of the strike taking place has some Twitterers are reacting with jokes, suggesting that this will have little effect on their lives in the next two days.

Kapuskasing (Cambridge, England) shame about the postal strike…there is sooo much stuff i need to accomplish with them…NOT…but will milk it for sure #honorarybrit 21 Oct 2009 from TweetDeck

SonyaVanSickle (Texas) So this UK postal strike – they do get that there’s email now, right? And the more strikes that occur the less likely ppl are 2 MAIL things? 21 Oct 2009 from TweetDeck

YorkshireTea (United Kingdom) Got an email from an SMS provider to reassure me that their service will not be affected by the postal strike. Erm, thanks? 21 Oct 2009 from mbpidgin

RalphCooper (London, England) Does anyone at all support the postal strike? 21 Oct 2009 from Tweetie

Others who will be affected by the strike are less concerned about the postal workers, but still worried about certain orders arriving on time, perhaps one of the bigger uses of “snail mail” in recent years.

paulrandall (Southwest of England) Hoping my copy of Forza 3 won’t get delayed too much now the postal strike is going ahead 21 Oct 2009 from Tweetie

BeadieJay (Oxfordshire, England) Angry at myself for forgetting postal strike. Now no way to get 60th Wedding Anniversary card to parents for Friday 21 Oct 2009 from web

MissUnderscore (North East England) Damn you postal strike. I ordered black pipecleaners for my class’s pom-pom Halloween spiders. They have not arrived! 21 Oct 2009 from web

nizzy_ (Scotland, UK) just my luck! saas sent out my award letter yesterday and the postal service is going on strike tomorrow, arghhh. 21 Oct 2009 from web

alecyeoman (Cornwall/Norwich) Great. Postal strike is going to delay the book I ordered from Amazon. 21 Oct 2009 from web

Some companies have been shipping products early in anticipation of the strike, including Microsoft which has allowed some users who have ordered the new Windows 7 to receive their orders early.