Postal workers begin Christmas strike action over bitter pay dispute

The Communications Workers Union has started a swathe of strikes in the lead up to Christmas

Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a wave of strikes in the run-up to Christmas that will impact services across the UK.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) have called on their members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters to strike on 9 December, 11 December, 14 December and 15 December.

The walkouts involve 115,000 workers and are taking place due to a bitter dispute over pay and conditions. The union has said its members want a pay rise that matches the soaring cost of living.

The union claims Royal Mail imposed a 2 per cent pay increase on members without consultation and is “refusing” to treat employees with respect, according to general secretary Dave Ward.

“We want to create a future for Royal Mail. We care about the customers. You could speak to any postal workers and they will say that they care about the service they provide,” Mr Ward said on Friday morning.

“Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect,” he previously said.

“Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks.

“But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families.

“This can be resolved if Royal Mail begin treating their workers with respect, and meet with the union to resolve this dispute.”

Dave Ward said postal workers ‘will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs’ (PA)

Some postal workers in Scotland will travel to London to join around 15,000 of their UK colleagues in what is being dubbed the biggest postal workers demonstration in living memory.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We spent three more days at Acas this week to discuss what needs to happen for the strikes to be lifted.

The money allocated to the pay deal risks being eaten away by the costs of further strike action

Royal Mail spokesperson

“In the end, all we received was another request for more pay, without the changes needed to fund the pay offer.

“The CWU know full well that in a business losing more than £1m a day, we need to agree changes to the way we work so that we can fund the pay offer of up to 9 per cent we have already made.

“While the CWU refuses to accept the need for change, it’s our customers and our people who suffer. Strike action has already cost our people £1,200 each.

“The money allocated to the pay deal risks being eaten away by the costs of further strike action.

“The CWU is striking at our busiest time, deliberately holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country.

“We are doing everything we can to deliver Christmas for our customers and settle this dispute. During the last strike days, we delivered more than 700,000 parcels, and more than 11,000 delivery and processing staff returned to work.

“We recovered our service quickly, but the task becomes more challenging as Christmas nears.

“We remain willing to talk at any time about our best and final offer and urge the CWU to call off their damaging strike action.”