The British postal dispute will escalate into two days of all-out strikes on Friday November 6 andMonday November 9 unless Royal Mail and the CWU union can find a settlement in talks over the next
few days. This follows three days of large-scale strikes last Thursday to Saturday.The CWU will call out all 121,000 postal workers across the UK for 24 hours on the two days.Until last week, the strike action had been split into different areas, with nearly 44,000 staff inmail centres and network drivers called on to stop work last Thursday, followed by some 77,000delivery and collection staff on Saturday.
The two sides disputed how many postal workers actually took part in the strike, with RoyalMail claiming that 25% of delivery staff worked normally on Saturday. There were also differentclaims over the size of the letters backlog, put at 35 million items by Royal Mail but estimated asmuch higher by the CWU.
At the same time, the CWU stressed it wanted to achieve a negotiated settlement in talks atthe TUC union organisation this week. Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, declared: “CWU isdetermined to reach an agreement or make enough progress to call off strike action next week.”
Royal Mail condemned the CWU’s “destructive” decision to call two one-day strikes amidongoing talks.
Mark Higson, Managing Director of Royal Mail Letters said: “The CWU claims to want aresolution to this dispute yet they know that more strike action will distract from the importantdiscussions that need to take place and to which we at Royal Mail are committed. The CWU’sirresponsible behaviour underlines just how muddled and confused the thinking of the union is – andhow little it really cares about customers or the future of the UK postal service.”
Royal Mail expects to get all mail delayed by last week’s strikes to customers before thenext round of strikes, he added. About 35 million items were delayed by the work stoppages over thethree days.
On Friday, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, who is acting as a mediator, made newproposals to the two sides for discussion this week. “Royal Mail provides a hugely important publicservice and everyone involved in these talks knows how damaging it would be if an agreement is notachieved,” he stated.
