It’s Never Too Early For Christmas Post; Royal Mail Strikes Could Halt Festive Deliveries

By Skyler Bradley

Royal Mail workers are striking for 19 days over poor pay and conditions in the run-up to Christmas – with around 110,000 postal workers taking part in action since last week.

With the next strike action planned for Thursday 20^th October, extensive walkouts of all Communications Workers Union (CWU) members are due to fall on Tuesday 25^th October and Monday the 28^th November (Cyber Monday).

A total of 15 strikes are expected to take place until November with a potential for more walkouts throughout December if the company does not compromise with the postal workers’ demands for change.

As industrial action falls directly on and around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, further festive period action could severely impact delivery services nation-wide.

Parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS) has predicted an annual operating loss of £350m which may stretch to £450m if rival companies are sought out for emergency damage-control.

David Ward, general secretary for the CWU, has stated that Royal Mail is infringing on the rights of workers and is “holding postal workers to ransom for taking legal industrial action against a business approach that is not in the interests of workers, customers or the future of Royal Mail.”

CWU’s national officer, Andy Furey, responded to Royal Mail’s announcement regarding likely job cuts. These ranging between 5,000-6,000 due to the planned industrial action scheduled from October-December.

Speaking on behalf of the CWU, Furey deemed the job cut briefing as “essentially bullying”.

He continues, “I think [Royal Mail] were looking to frighten our members not to take strike action again in the future. It’s actually incensed them and the feedback we’re getting is that it’s actually galvanized them to be more determined than ever before”.

Chief Executive for Royal Mail Simon Thompson, has expressed regrets towards the job cut announcement last week, justifying that it was financially motivated. He stated that, “Each strike day weakens our financial situation. The CWU’s decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution… risks further headcount reductions”.

Thompson told the BBC that Royal Mail is now a parcel-led business with the reduction of letters sent via post decreasing from 20 billion per year to now 8 billion across the last couple decades. Accommodating to this change, the company now wish to push for later working hours to target the trend of online shoppers and next-day deliveries.

The potential 3-hour time changes have been flagged as arguably more of an issue than pay according to some strikers.

Particularly of concern to Steve Wisely, divisional rep for the South East, duty times were labelled as “the biggest issue”.

Loyal workers used to daytime shifts could struggle to adapt family life with later shift patterns as Wisely continues, “members now believe the change agenda is more serious than the pay agenda… One lad on the line at Dartford… said even a 30-minute change would mean he’d have to put his child into after-care”.

Regional Secretary of the South West, Kevin Beazer, pushes for change. He finalised that, “We’re going to see this through until the end. We need to keep our discipline and we need cool heads – this is a long fight and we’ll make sure we win it”.

Emergency CWU gate meetings were announced for Wednesday outside all Royal Mail workplaces in the UK, encouraging local representatives to “stand together”. A document posted via the CWU Twitter was urged to be read aloud as it summarised that, “collective strength will win the dispute”.

Royal Mail are yet to respond with a new offer of change.