Postal workers will take part in “further action” in new year, Ward announces

CWU general secretary Dave Ward has announced that postal workers will take part in “further action” in the new year as part of their “increasingly bitter” dispute with Royal Mail over pay and conditions.

CWU members are due to go on strike on December 23rd and 24th, the latest in a series of walk-outs this month. The union said it had made an offer to Royal Mail today to suspend the industrial action but alleged that the company rejected its offer “almost immediately”.

Ward said: “For Royal Mail Group to reject our offer just hours after receiving it demonstrates that they were never serious about saving Christmas for customers and businesses.

“When a company openly boasts of having built a £1.7bn fund to crush its own workers rather than use that money to settle the dispute and restore the service, then you know dark forces are clearly at work.

“Their sole intention is to destroy the jobs of postal workers and remove their union from the workplace. Our members will not stand for this, and further action will take place in 2023.

“Our message to the public and businesses is that postal workers do not want to be here, but they are facing an aggressive, reckless and out-of-control CEO committed to wrecking their livelihoods.”

The CWU said the proposal rejected by Royal Mail included establishing a “period of calm” from now until January 16th and offering to sign a joint statement with the company “incorporating Royal Mail’s latest promise of no compulsory redundancies”.

The union described the dispute with Royal Mail as “increasingly bitter”, noting that the upcoming walk-outs will be the 17th and 18th days of action by union members. The CWU said the latest strikes “look set to end any hopes of huge amounts of Christmas post being delivered”.

Ward argued last week that Royal Mail are overseeing the “evaporation of a 500-year-old national treasure” after the company rejected a previous “peace offer” from workers’ representatives to avert further strikes.

The union said it set out “simple solutions” to end the dispute, specifically a back-dated pay deal of 9% over 18 months, a long-term job security commitment from Royal Mail bosses, a pause on “attacks” on union representatives and members and a “period of calm” for negotiations on the company’s future.

The CWU alleged that Royal Mail did not offer to meet with its representatives, instead sending the union a document via independent arbitration service ACAS. The union also accused the company of releasing a “strike-breaking video” on internal social media channels, which it said was “aimed at breaking workers’ morale”.

According to the Mirror, Royal Mail has been using a staff website to criticise striking postal workers. In one post, chief executive Simon Thompson said: “Calling strike action at Christmas is terrible for our team’s income and our customers’ presents – that is bah humbug.”

Thompson has claimed that Royal Mail’s current pay offer would see postal workers receive “up to a 9% pay increase over 18 months alongside a host of other enhancements” and has described it as the company’s “best and final offer”.

Postal workers took two days of strike action in November, covering the busy shopping period of Black Friday. The CWU also led a series of walk outs over the summer, after members voted by almost 98% on a 77% turnout to take strike action.