As well as holding strikes this week, 115,000 Royal Mail workers from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will also take industrial action on 23 December and Christmas Eve. Royal Mail workers walked out again on
As well as holding strikes this week, 115,000 Royal Mail workers from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will also take industrial action on 23 December and Christmas Eve. Royal Mail workers walked out again on Wednesday, marking the third of six strike days across the festive season. The union has called for Royal Mail to increase wages to an amount that “covers the current cost of living”. Letters will not be delivered on strike days and some parcels will be delayed, Royal Mail warned. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders.
Postal worker walkouts coincide with the busiest time of year for Royal Mail when people and businesses are sending Christmas cards and presents. A spokesperson from the Royal Mail also said the 700 job losses were “planned” and have happened following an “extended consultation and achieved through voluntary redundancy.” “We’ll continue to revise and improve performance in all our units every year,” the IDS chair, Keith Williams, said. Together, those problems overshadowed what IDS said were successful efforts to cut costs and “rightsize” the business in the second half of the financial year. “It is nothing more than an asset-stripping business plan that will see the breakup of the company and the end of Royal Mail as a major contributor to the UK economy. On Tuesday, a separate set of figures from the ONS revealed that the gap between wage growth in the public and private sector is near a record high.
But the rail industry was hit by a drop-off in passenger numbers during the Covid pandemic, and it’s under pressure to save money. Bosses say reforms need to be agreed, to afford pay increases and modernise the railway. Pip Haywood, managing director of online card company Thortful, has calculated that each day of action is costing the firm up to £50,000 a day. The Unite union says 2,400 managers will work to rule between 15 July and 19 July and will take part in strike action from 20 July to 22 July. Chairman Keith Williams has said that the firm is losing £1m a day as parcel volumes fall and efforts to modernise the business stall. Postal worker Hannah Carrol, who is part a strike at Whitechapel in East London, said she wanted to see wages rise in line with the growing cost of living.
But a spokesman for the CWU said that Royal Mail has offered workers a 3% pay rise this year, 3% next year as well as an additional 2% if employees agree to “the absolute destruction” of terms and conditions. Evri, the delivery company formerly known as Hermes, said that severe weather, Royal Mail strikes and staff shortages are causing “some localised delays”. Some parcel companies claim the walkouts are having a knock-on effect, and forcing them to delay next-day deliveries as people and firms seek alternative ways to send their post. The union representing the workers is demanding a pay rise that more closely reflects the current rate of inflation.
“It is insulting the intelligence of every postal worker for the Royal Mail chief executive, Simon Thompson, to claim that their change agenda is ‘modernisation’. The Royal Mail industrial action will span over 19 days in the run-up to the busy Christmas period and will https://www.tradebot.online/ cover peak periods such as Black Friday on 25 November and Cyber Monday on 28 November. Network Rail wants to cut 1,900 jobs as part of changes to the way its maintenance teams work – although it insists most of this could be achieved by people leaving voluntarily.
What do people have to say about the postal strike?
“We’ve been at a crossroads and we were moving forward, and Simon decided this was the opportunity for him to step down and appoint new leadership,” Williams said. Thompson, who took on the job in early 2021, will leave in October after a bruising tenure that included being accused of “incompetence or cluelessness by MPs”. Williams said there was now a “clear path towards a more competitive and profitable Royal Mail, delivering improved services for our customers while further reducing our environmental impact”. The RMT disagrees with some of the changes and wants a guarantee of no compulsory job losses. The first-ever nationwide strike by nurses is also expected to go ahead this week. However, because she relies “so heavily on the post” to get products from suppliers and to send her art to customers, she says it “has made my life very hard this Christmas season”.
Another example of a workforce being led, lemming-like, over the edge of an employment cliffs by their trade union’s dinasaur leader in ANOTHER POLITICALLY MOTIVATED STRIKE designed to bash the Tories. The union has announced 19 days of strike action in the buildup to the busy Christmas period. The industrial action will cover peak periods such as Black Friday on 25 November and Cyber Monday on 28 November.
Christmas post hit as Royal Mail workers strike
“It’s meant we’ve had to staff up to protect our customers,” she told the BBC, with three times as many requests for advice on delivery windows from shoppers than usual. Lucy Bryant, who runs her small business Haus of Lucy from Brighton, says she supports the strikers as “everyone has a right to fair pay”. However, Royal Mail hit back at Unite’s figures saying that “56% of workers have had an increase and others have had their pay protected at their substantive grade”. According to Unite, during these periods, deliveries and some services like tracked items, will be delayed. The company is encouraging people to post items as early as possible to avoid disruption. IDS bosses said they were not aware of whether personal attacks from either politicians or unions played a part in Thompson’s decision to step down.
- He described the plans as an “asset-stripping business plan” that will lead to the break-up of the company.
- While the pay deal – which was reached after workers staged 18 days of strike action – will cost about £600m, IDS said it would largely be covered by cost cuts over the next two years.
- Lucy Bryant, who runs her small business Haus of Lucy from Brighton, says she supports the strikers as “everyone has a right to fair pay”.
The CWU said the plans included delaying the arrival of post to the public by three hours, cuts in workers’ sick pay and inferior terms for new employees. Unite says the strike action is over Royal Mail’s plans to cut 700 jobs and cut pay by up to £7,000. No letters will be delivered during strike days, said Royal Mail, but as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible would be delivered. It said plans by the postal service include cutting workers’ sick pay, delaying arrival of post by three hours and inferior terms for new employees. Royal Mail has reported a £1bn loss, with bosses blaming strike action by workers and a failure to increase productivity for its poor performance during a year in which it cut 10,000 jobs. This is part of a long-running dispute between unions, rail firms, the government and Network Rail over pay, job cuts and changes to terms and conditions.
No post will be delivered on Black Friday or Cyber Monday
The union has said the strikes are partly about the “Uberisation” of the postal service, including “widespread changes… introducing Uber-style owner-drivers, mail centre closures and changes to Sunday working”. “Instead of working with us to agree on changes required to fund that offer and get pay into our posties’ pockets, the CWU has announced plans to ballot in the New Year for further strike action.” Firms have warned of the hit to Christmas sales as postal workers squeezed by rising costs fight for higher pay and better conditions. Royal Mail managers across the UK are to go on strike this month in a dispute over pay and job cuts. It comes as Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the strikers, had rejected a pay rise offer “worth up to 5.5%” after three months of talks.
It will also prioritise the delivery of medical prescriptions where possible. It is the first of four days of industrial action, with walk-outs also taking place on 31 August as well as 8 and 9 September. This would effectively see employees in secure, well-paid jobs turned into a “casualised, financially-precarious workforce overnight”, said the union. Along with the rail industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday, there will also be train strikes on Friday and Saturday. The average pay rise for workers in the private sector was 6.9% between August and October. The dispute has been going on since the summer and like all the industrial action across rail, the NHS, teachers, border staff and driving examiners, pay is a key issue.
Royal Mail workers are holding the first of 19 strikes in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. “We call on the CWU leaders to cancel their planned strike action and accept our invitation to enter talks through Acas without further delay. “The CWU leadership’s choice of damaging strike action over resolution is weakening the financial position of the company and threatening the job security of our postmen and women. Tuesday’s walkout by rail staff left services running at about a fifth of capacity, on a day when snow, ice and fog hampered road and air travel. The card company Moonpig has advised customers to order early where possible but said its gifts and flowers use different delivery services so would be unaffected by the strikes. On strike days it will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels as possible, it said.
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He described the plans as an “asset-stripping business plan” that will lead to the break-up of the company. General Secretary Dave Ward said workers faced the “biggest ever assault” on jobs, terms and conditions “in the history of Royal Mail”. “Quality of service has been significantly affected by industrial action and high levels of absence. I am sorry that we have not delivered the high standards of service our customers expect. However, bosses have not ruled out plans to potentially break up the business.