ROYAL MAIL staff from Wokingham’s sorting office have joined 115,000 of their colleagues in going on strike today.
Members of the Communications Workers Union, which represents the workers, are attempting to see Royal Mail’s bosses give a pay increase to cover cost of living increases.
Talks have failed, and staff have started a series of shutdowns, including the Broad Street sorting office.
The union argues that during the covid lockdowns, Royal Mail management gave a 2% rise, but with inflation now looking at closer to 18%, they say a larger increase is needed to avoid a reduction in workers’ living standards.
Royal Mail says the company is losing £1 million every day and the strike action is making the situation “worse”.
“We want to protect well-paid, permanent jobs long-term and retain our place as the industry leader on pay, terms and conditions. Each strike day makes that more difficult, making Royal Mail’s future more uncertain than at any time in its long history,” the company said in a statement.
They want staff to adapt to modern ways of working, saying its business was moving away from letters and towards parcels.
“We cannot cling to outdated working practices, ignoring technological advancements and pretending that Covid has not significantly changed what the public wants from Royal Mail,” the statement said.
“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience the CWU’s strike action will cause.
“We remain ready to talk with the CWU to try and avert damaging industrial action and prevent significant inconvenience for customers. But any talks must be about both change and pay.”
But the CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said that postal workers are “completely united” over the strikes, noting that members voted 97.6% in favour of the industrial action on a turnout of 77%.
“We can’t keep on living in a country where bosses rake in billions in profit while their employees are forced to use food banks,” he said.
“When Royal Mail bosses are raking in £758 million in profit and shareholders pocketing in excess of £400 million, our members won’t accept pleads of poverty from the company.
“Postal workers won’t meekly accept their living standards being hammered by greedy business leaders who are completely out of touch with modern Britain.”
He added: “Royal Mail’s leadership have lost the dressing room – and unless they make efforts to get real on discussing a pay rise that postal workers deserve, serious disruption will continue.”
This is the second day of strikes, with two more planned for Thursday, September 8, and Friday, September 9.
