万花筒 2009-10-29&10-31 英国邮政工人罢工

Striking postal¹ workers manned the picket² line outside the south London mail center from dawn. A stake they say jobs pay and very existence of Royal Mail.

"You know, I've got a family to support. You know, I've got a house, a mortgage to pay for. You know, this is not what I want to do."

The Communication Workers Union claimed 78,000 delivery and collection workers took part in today's strike. Yesterday, 40,000 mail center staff and drivers walked out. Royal Mail now has a backlog³ of 30,000,000 letters. These pictures were taken inside a south London sorting office today and show 45 cages of unsorted mail containing around 120,000 items.

Evy Marshall celebrates her 11th birthday this weekend. Her usual piles of cards are unlikely to arrive.

"I've got to feel really upset, because they can't get here and I would a kind of feel, I would feel really forgotten, but I also feel quite disappointed that none of my cards can get here."

The dispute centers on a 2007 pay and modernization⁴ deal. The CWU accused Royal Mail of reneging on the agreement. Today Lord Mandelson set efforts to reach a settlement for being held up by a troublesome few.

"It's a minority of areas and branches of the CWU that are dragging their feet in this. They are the ones who are falling out with management for whatever reason, real or perceived, and it's amongst those localities that we've got to bridge these differences of opinion and get them signing up or resigning up to the original agreement that they put together two years ago."

The union says it's willing to hold talks with ACAS to try and break the deadlock⁵. The Royal Mail insists the strikes have to be abandoned before that can happen.

"Well, I think, again, we've said that the use of mediation⁶ could be very useful in the future. I think we really need the strikes called off before that can be really productive. And as I said, we believe we have a good basis for that in the talk that took place earlier in the week."

Royal Mail has drafted in 13,000 temps and scores of managers to try to clear the delays. But with the CWU planning a further three-day walkout from next Thursday, it appears to be a backlog that can only get bigger.

 

Simon Newton, Sky News.
 

1 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

2 picket   

n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫

参考例句：

• They marched to the factory and formed a picket.他们向工厂前进,并组成了纠察队。
• Some of the union members did not want to picket.工会的一些会员不想担任罢工纠察员。

3 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

4 modernization   

n.现代化，现代化的事物

参考例句：

• This will help us achieve modernization.这有助于我们实现现代化。
• The Chinese people are sure to realize the modernization of their country.中国人民必将实现国家现代化。

5 deadlock   

n.僵局，僵持

参考例句：

• The negotiations reached a deadlock after two hours.两小时后，谈判陷入了僵局。
• The employers and strikers are at a deadlock over the wage.雇主和罢工者在工资问题上相持不下。

6 mediation   

n.调解

参考例句：

• The dispute was settled by mediation of the third country. 这场争端通过第三国的斡旋而得以解决。
• The dispute was settled by mediation. 经调解使争端得以解决。