Royal Mail strike - live: Postal workers hold rally in London as walkout causes delays
The area outside parliament was filled with postal workers in pink fluorescent jackets from the Communication Workers Union
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Thousands of Royal Mail workers have gathered for a rally in Parliament Square after walking out in the first of a series of strikes in the run-up to Christmas.
The area outside parliament was filled with postal workers in pink fluorescent jackets from the Communication Workers Union, who earlier said 15,000 Royal Mail workers were expected to attend the rally.
CWU claims Royal Mail imposed a 2 per cent pay increase on members without consultation, with general secretary Dave Ward saying that the organisation is “refusing” to treat employees with respect.
"Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks,” said Mr Ward.
"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.”
Members of the CWU are planning more strikes in December, including on Christmas Eve. The next will take place on Sunday 11 December. The public has been advised to plan ahead when sending packages for Christmas.
It comes amid a winter of strike action in the UK, including walkouts planned by nurses, ambulance staff, rail workers and Border Force officers.
‘I’m proud to be here supporting them’, Jeremy Corbyn MP tells The Independent of Parliament Square rally
“These postal workers that are here today have come in their tens of thousands from all over the country because they want decent pay, because they want decent conditions at work, because they want to serve all of our communities”, Jeremy Corbyn MP tells Mustafa Qadri at The Independent.
“This is a strike about workers’ rights, workers’ conditions and our communities all over the country. I’m proud to be here supporting them.”
RMT’s Eddie Dempsey shows support at Parliament Square rally
“Today is so important because at the RMT, we’ve said we want to support workers in every trade union that are prepared to stand up and fight and the CWU, that’s what they’re doing”, RMT assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey tells Mustafa Qadri at The Independent.
“We’ve been supporting them from the start and that means every time they take action, we’re going to be beside them including when they put events on like this.
“It’s extremely important and we want to keep fighting for them.”
‘Everything is just chaos’, Royal Mail employee says of management at Parliament Square rally
“I’ve come here because the terms and conditions and everything Royal Mail are laying on us at the moment is totally unacceptable”, Royal Mail employee Andy Coldwell, 59, tells Mustafa Qadri at The Independent.
“Longer hours, new working conditions, bullying and harassment by the management, no pay rise, everything is just chaos.
“Christmas post is not being delivered. It’s not the post peoples’ fault, it’s the fault of the management.”
Parliament Square rally ‘biggest show of support for one group of workers’ in ‘decades’, Dave Ward tells The Independent
“I think it’s the biggest show of support for one group of workers who are facing the most brutal attack that this country’s seen on a group of workers for decades and decades”, CWU’s general secretary Dave Ward tells Mustafa Qadri at The Independent.
“These are fantastic people, hardworking people. They want to be nothing more than back at work delivering to the public, delivering to the businesses.
“My thoughts today are this is a show of strength like you’ve never seen before and it’s going to see us through to winning this dispute. I have no doubt about that.”
The Parliament Square rally held by striking postal workers has now congregated outside Buckingham Palace.
‘We don’t have a manager that’s ever been a postman’, Royal Mail worker tells The Independent
“For me, it’s just to show the solidarity of all the CWU members and that we need to get rid of the CEO”, Royal Mail worker Gary Vipond, 62, tells Mustafa Qadri at The Independent.
“There’s a lot of stress. The Royal Mail are trying to put more and more work on, they’re trying to bring in new systems of work that haven’t been tested. None of them know anything about it.
“We don’t have a manager that’s ever been a postman, so they’re insisting on unachievable aims. We know it’s going to fail.
“Let us, let the CWU, let the posties have a say and then maybe we’ve got a chance of it working.”
CWU hold protest rally outside Parliament as strikes over pay and conditions continue
The event has seen thousands of Royal Mail employees and their supporters rally from Parliament Square down to Buckingham Palace.
Royal Mail leadership lack the ‘knowledge’ and ‘ability’ to lead workers out of crisis, Dave Ward says
At the Parliament Square rally this afternoon, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union Dave Ward addressed crowds of striking postal workers on stage.
“We’re so proud of your solidarity. We know how difficult it’s becoming”, he remarked.
“We know how difficult it is for our members and their families and their loved ones. We know how difficult it is for all workers in struggle.
“It is absolutely the right cause, for you as workers, for your families and for the service we provide. We’re fighting for things that we should be able to get in agreement with Royal Mail.
“Let’s just remind ourselves where the company came from. One of the things that we’re seeing now is the people who’ve created a crisis here, the CEO and a few handfuls of people on the board chairing the company, they have not got the knowledge or the ability to lead us out of that crisis.
“But you have, haven’t you?”
Will my train be running during the rail strikes?
The most protracted and disruptive national rail strikes since 1989 begin on Tuesday 13 December. They involve walk-outs on a total of 12 days, stretching into the New Year, by the RMT union as well as some industrial action by the TSSA and Unite unions.
The strikes that will disrupt passenger trains the most involve a series of four 48-hour stoppages:
- 13-14 December
- 16-17 December
- 3-4 January
- 6-7 January
Some trains will be affected on the evening before strikes, and many will be disrupted on the days after strikes.
The RMT leadership has also imposed an overtime ban across 14 train operators from 18 December until 2 January, which will disrupt travel during the festive period.
Will my train be running during the rail strikes?
Exclusive: Several operators, including Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains, are running more trains than on previous strike days
Friday strikes in pictures
Striker accuses employer of ‘total mismanagement'
A postal worker joining thousands at a protest in Westminster earlier today accused the employer of “total mismanagement” and said the conditions demanded are “unachievable”.
Gary Wright, who is originally from Manchester but has worked as a mail delivery worker in Bristol for five years, travelled to London on coaches with around 200 colleagues to take part in the action.
He told the PA news agency: “Why we’re here today is because the terms and conditions that they’re wanting to bring in are unachievable. They’re wanting to make it into basically a gig company taking on parcels to match with DPD and the likes of Amazon, but they have not got the infrastructure.
“They’ve made £750 million and then to say ‘now we’re losing a million pounds a day’. Where that’s gone, that’s total mismanagement.”
He said the conditions the employer wants to impose would mean working Sundays for the basic rate and “later starts, later finishes”.
“I have to travel to work and for me to get home it means it might be an extra even two hours on top of normal finish time because there’s traffic and everything.
“We work to live, not live to work.”
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