Greater than 115,000 UK postal employees have voted overwhelmingly for additional industrial motion over working situations, forward of 4 days of strikes already deliberate for later this month and early September.
The Communication Staff Union (CWU) stated nearly 99% of members voted in favour of taking additional strike motion on a 72% turnout.
“The continuing makes an attempt of Royal Mail Group to whittle away individuals’s hard-won working situations will probably be met with fierce opposition,” stated Terry Pullinger, the deputy basic secretary (postal) of the CWU. “In these instances, working individuals want extra safety on the job, not much less, and we gained’t be backing down till we safe an appropriate answer for our members.”
Postal employees are already attributable to strike in a separate dispute over pay on 26 and 31 August, and eight and 9 September.
The most recent poll consequence means postal employees represented by the union will enter a “formal dispute” with Royal Mail, that means the union is now legally mandated to declare additional motion.
Members voted by 98.7% to pursue additional motion, on a 72.2% turnout. Which means that about 83,000 employees voted, with 81,000 in favour of extra strike motion.
Royal Mail has stated it has provided a 5.5% pay rise for CWU employees, its largest improve in years.
“As a substitute of partaking meaningfully on change that can safe future jobs, the CWU has determined to poll in opposition to change,” stated a spokesperson for Royal Mail.
“Royal Mail can have a vibrant future, however we will’t obtain that by dwelling previously. Prospects need extra parcels, larger parcels, delivered the subsequent day, together with Sundays, and extra environmentally pleasant choices. We wished to satisfy this week however have been disenchanted the CWU couldn’t make it – we hope to satisfy subsequent week.”
On the coronary heart of the dispute is the loss-making UK postal enterprise, which is able to proceed to be known as Royal Mail after a deliberate renaming of the general holding firm to Worldwide Distributions Providers.
The corporate, which has change into more and more reliant on its worthwhile abroad operations, known as GLS, is aiming to maneuver in the direction of a parcels-led enterprise to money in on the web buying growth.
It says parcel deliveries characterize 60% of Royal Mail’s enterprise and that this transition, as letter deliveries decline, requires modifications to methods of working.
The CWU has stated Royal Mail’s purported 5.5% pay supply truly amounted to a 2% improve at a time of hovering inflation, which has hit a 40-year excessive of 10.1%.
“Postal employees on this nation are being pushed to the sting, however there will be little doubt that they are going to struggle the deliberate erosion of their office rights with willpower,” stated Dave Ward, the union’s basic secretary.
Royal Mail, which final month stated it was shedding £1m a day and has threatened to interrupt up the corporate if it couldn’t obtain “important operational change”, has stated it hoped to interrupt even within the present monetary 12 months. Nonetheless, it has stated that strike motion will push it to a loss.
