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Postal Workers in the UK Launch Black Friday Strike, Joining a Wave of Industrial Action Across the Country

Thousands of postal workers in the U.K. are on a two-day strike, disrupting Black Friday after talks between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union failed to reach an agreement.

November 25, 2022
10 minutes
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Thousands of postal workers in the U.K. are on a two-day strike, disrupting Black Friday after talks between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union failed to reach an agreement.

The leaders of the trade union representing around 115,000 striking postal workers have re-entered negotiations with Royal Mail executives. The talks have now spanned seven months.

Royal Mail Group has accused the union of holding Christmas to ransom after it tabled its best and final offer.
The CWU has announced 10 additional days of strike action, four of which have been formally notified. The last strike will take place on December 1.

In October, Royal Mail revealed plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs by next summer. The company posted a half-year adjusted operating loss of £219 million ($265.3 million), and CEO Simon Thompson said the strikes had already added £100 million to the company’s losses so far this year. IDS shares have fallen more than 58% since the start of the year.

"We are facing a difficult choice in a company that is losing money: whether to spend our money on pay and protecting jobs, or on the cost of strikes," Thompson said Wednesday.

The CWU's planned strike action is jeopardizing Christmas for our customers, businesses and families across the country, and could cost their own members their jobs.

The CWU met with Royal Mail executives on Wednesday, but claimed that Thompson did not attend. In a statement, the CWU warned of "the end of Royal Mail as we know it."

Royal Mail has announced a new pay deal that includes a 9% pay increase over 18 months, a new profit sharing program for employees, and a block on compulsory redundancies until the end of March 2023. The company has also improved its voluntary redundancy packages.

The union has accused the company's executives of turning Royal Mail Group into a gig economy-style parcel courier, imposing compulsory redundancies on postal workers while retaining agency staff on lower pay, and offering a 3.5% pay increase that is not backdated.

The union said the deal on the table included cuts to sick pay, removal of a Sunday premium payment, later start and finishing times and the introduction of technology that would monitor postal workers every minute of the day.

"We will not accept that 115,000 Royal Mail workers - the people who kept us connected during the pandemic and made millions in profit for bosses and shareholders - take such a devastating blow to their livelihoods," said CWU General Secretary Dave Ward.

"These proposals would spell the end of Royal Mail as we know it, degrading it from a national institution into an unreliable, Uber-style gig economy company."

Postal workers in August voted overwhelmingly in favor of strike action in protest at pay and conditions. This was after Royal Mail initially imposed a 2% pay increase on workers, while U.K. inflation was heading toward double digits. In October, U.K. inflation hit 11.1%.

The union is calling for an improved 18-month pay deal, a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and an “alternative business strategy that would see Royal Mail Group use its competitive advantage to grow as a company, instead of becoming a gig economy parcel employer.”

Workers in the UK are striking over pay, working conditions and pensions. Inflation is at its highest level in over 40 years, and the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has projected the steepest fall in living standards since records began.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that an average of 19,500 working days per month were lost to industrial action in 2019. However, this number has risen since the Covid-19 pandemic, and hit 87,600 in July 2022.

The RMT union has voted in favor of four more 48-hour rail strikes in the run-up to Christmas, which would bring the country's train services to a virtual standstill. This would be a major inconvenience for many people travelling during the holiday season.

The Royal College of Nursing has announced that its members will stage walkouts by the end of the year, in a historic move for the 106-year-old organisation. This will be the first time that the RCN has taken such action.

The British Medical Association will hold a ballot in January for junior doctors in England over a pay deal that would offer them a 2% increase this year. Meanwhile, 18,000 ambulance workers represented by the sizeable GMB and Unite unions are voting on whether to go on strike.

On Thursday, Scottish teachers took industrial action, closing the vast majority of schools in Scotland. They are demanding a 10% pay rise, and several U.K.-wide teachers’ unions representing a total of more than 400,000 teachers and support staff are holding ballots which close in January.

Telecoms workers staged a strike for the first time in more than 30 years in July to protest their pay. They also staged additional strikes in August and October.

Meanwhile, airline baggage handlers walked out for three days on Nov. 18.

Around 100,000 civil servants, including Border Force officials, have voted to strike over the Christmas period, demanding a 10% pay increase. This would be a significant disruption to holiday travel plans.

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