Royal Mail postal workers to hold 19 days of strike action -- and here is why they are striking

The Communications Workers Union has announced the strike action across the Royal Mail Group in the lead-up to Christmas.

A CWU spokesman said the union had signed off on an agreed change document, but Royal Mail had begun to impose changes without negotiation and without agreement.

And the CWU has called for Royal Mail to increase wages to an amount which covers the cost of living.

The spokesman said: “This is at a time when inflation is currently running at 11.8 per cent and when Royal Mail has announced Group profits of £758 million and when the company is paying out many millions to private shareholders.

“In a national strike ballot over pay, our Royal Mail members voted by a 97.6 per cent majority to take action.”

Royal Mail Group said strikes would make its financial position worse and threaten workers' job security.

Dave Ward, CWU general secretary, said: “Royal Mail’s millionaire executives want to destroy our members’ terms and turn this into another Amazon.”

Rob Allcock, CWU Nottingham amalgamated branch secretary, has been picketing with postal workers across Mansfield and Ashfield.

He said workers had a 2 per cent pay rise imposed by the employer and, given postal workers worked through the coronavirus pandemic and never having been furloughed, workers deserve fair pay.

He said: “Postal workers have turned a £500 million deficit on a loss-making company into a £1 billion profit and we believe we should have a fair share of that pay.”

Helen McLuckie, the union representative for the Mansfield Delivery Office on Old Mill Lane, said: “We have more than 220 members in Mansfield.

“The support has been amazing.

“We can make a difference and do have some power and control over our own workplace.”

Strike action has been called for 24 hours from 4am on various days starting on Thursday, October 13, taking in Black Friday week and Cyber Monday. The strike action will be taken by all workers on October 13, 20, and 25 and November 28. Different teams and combinations of teams will strike on other dates, but, the CWU said, that will have a knock-on effect on all deliveries on those dates.

A Royal Mail spokesman told the BBC: “Royal Mail is losing £1m a day and must change faster in response to changing customer demands.

“We operate in a competitive market, and our customers have choices.

“Strikes and resistance to transformation by CWU will only make our financial position worse, and threatens the long-term job security of our postmen and women.”

He said Royal Mail had invited CWU to discussions through dispute resolution service Acas.

He said: “Rather than responding to our offer of talks, the CWU announced damaging industrial action, once again taking the path of prolonging disruption over resolution.”

Royal Mail Group apologised ‘for the inconvenience the CWU's strike action will cause’.