Postal workers at Royal Mail have launched a series of strikes over wages and working conditions in the run up to Christmas.
The strikes involving 115,000 workers will hit deliveries across the UK, Royal Mail has said.
Millions of mail items have piled up ahead of the action, the CWU union says.
Negotiations between the union and Royal Mail have collapsed.
CWU union members are scheduled to strike on December 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24.
Last week, due to the strikes, customers were advised to post the Christmas mail earlier than usual.
The union has said its members want a pay rise to match the rising cost of living and that members feel their management wants to turn Royal Mail into a gig economy firm, akin to Uber.
It warned of a “Christmas crisis” in parcel and letter delivery and said millions of mail items had piled up ahead of the strikes.
The union said its members are facing “massive real wage cuts” and that management wants to “enforce thousands of forced layoffs”.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, said: “Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas crisis by stubbornly refusing to treat their staff with respect.
“Postal workers want to continue serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog of the past few weeks.
“But they know their worth and will not faintheartedly accept the precarization of their jobs, the destruction of their livelihoods and the impoverishment of their families.”
Talks between the union and Royal Mail have collapsed, a spokesman said, adding that Royal Mail managers “refuse to budge on their ‘best and final’ offer”.
- December strikes: who is on strike and what wage claims do they have?
- Currys is dropping Royal Mail due to strike action
That offer includes a 9 per cent salary deal over 18 months and “a number of other concessions to terms and agreements,” Royal Mail said.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We spent three more days on this [conciliation service] Acas this week to discuss what needs to happen for the strikes to be lifted.
“In the end we received just another demand for more wages, without the changes needed to fund the wage offer,” the spokesman said, adding that the union “is perfectly aware” that the company is worth more than £1million loses per day.
He added that the strike action had cost the staff £1,200 each. “The money set aside for the collective agreement risks being eaten up by the costs of further strikes,” he said.
The rep added that CWU “deliberately holds Christmas as a ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country.”
He said Royal Mail was “doing everything we can to deliver for our customers at Christmas and resolve this dispute” by continuing deliveries, but “the task will become more difficult as Christmas approaches”.
The dispute began this summer after Royal Mail rejected unions’ demands for a pay rise to match inflation – the rate at which prices are rising – which currently stands at 11.1%.
Royal Mail is struggling as it transitions from its traditional letter delivery business – which is no longer profitable – to the fast-growing world of parcel delivery.
The company has announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.
Add Comment