More than 25,000 postal workers across the UK are to strike on Friday, Saturday and Monday in thelatest industrial dispute at Royal Mail following a series of strikes over the last few weeks, the
Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced today.Postal workers in London, Scotland, the West Country, East Anglia and the Midlands with majorcities including Birmingham, Coventry, Edinburgh, among others, will each take 24 hours of strikeaction. CWU listed in its official press release which locations are to strike on a particular day.
For the first time since the national dispute in 2007, Royal Mail drivers will be involved inthe strike meaning that cross-country mail services will be severely disrupted. In addition, anational strike ballot will be conducted in September due to the growing unrest, CWU added.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Postal workers are sick and tired of anincompetent management running their business into the ground. Workers are busier than ever andbeing treated badly. The current round of cuts in jobs and services is unacceptable.”
“Royal Mail agreed in 2007 to work with the union on agreeing modernisation. Despite explicitcommitments to negotiate they are reneging on that agreement and imposing panic-driven cuts to jobsand services. This is downsizing, not modernisation.”
“The company has failed to set out any clear or joined up vision of what modernisation reallymeans. They must stop imposing change and work with the union to agree the bigger picture ofmodernisation that the postal service badly needs,” he added.
In response, Royal Mail officially condemned the planned action. The company’s officials metwith the union last week and agreed a timetable for a new programme of talks about the final stage,phase 4, of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation agreement. “Yet the CWU repeatedly ignores our requestsfor them to engage,” Royal Mail said.
“The CWU claims to want to engage in this process, just as it claims to support the essentialmodernisation of the business – but today’s announcement of a national ballot for strike actioncould not be clearer that the CWU’s real agenda is to block change and modernisation at Royal Mailand to absolutely oppose on the ground our goal of making Royal Mail a strong and innovative leaderin the UK and international postal markets.”
Paul Tolhurst, Royal Mail’s Operations Director, confirmed: “The CWU is again saying onething and doing another – publicly they say they want modernisation yet they write regularly tomembers saying union policy is to oppose change on the ground – they agreed with us only last weeka timetable for further talks on change yet they now announce a national strike ballot. Theirbehaviour beggars belief.”
Royal Mail added that the union now wants strikes even in those offices which have alreadysuccessfully completed the changes that Royal Mail has implemented as part of their modernisationprogramme. “These changes are all covered by the 2007 Agreement on Pay and Modernisation, which theCWU leadership signed in the presence of the TUC but which they are now reneging on in a way thatclearly hurts our customers and our people and damages Royal Mail. The union claims to supportmodernisation, yet acts to destroy it.”
“We continue to work extremely hard to make the union’s leadership realise the scale andurgency of the changes we need to make – but having met the union more than 50 times in recentmonths, it is increasingly clear that the CWU refuses to believe that mail volumes are declining byaround 10% annually despite the clear evidence of this in the UK and in every other postal marketaround the world. Royal Mail’s future rests on providing customers with high quality, reliableservices at great value-for-money and it’s time the union realised that customers have a choice ina market where there are not just many rival carriers but rival electronic means of communication,”the postal operator further stated.
Underlining CWU’s uncooperative attitude, Royal Mail stressed that the union has actuallyissued instructions to their branch representatives in London and in a number of other offices notto co-operate with Royal Mail over the introduction of new equipment and changes in workingpractices which their leadership signed up to in 2007.
Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State, has recently made clear his view that the union are“essentially boycotting the agreed processes for making change in the Royal Mail” and that theunion must change its attitude to change and implement the 2007 agreement on Pay and Modernisation.
“Despite today’s threat, we are again urging the CWU to work with us to honour that agreementand help modernise Royal Mail and protect the Universal Service on which so many individuals andbusinesses depend,” Royal Mail concluded.
