New Royal Mail strike announced

Royal Mail workers will stage a second 24-hour walkout over pay and jobs, their union has said. The strike will begin at 1900 BST on 12 July and will end the following day, the Communication Workers’ Union said.

Last Friday, the CWU led a similar walkout across the UK – the first national postal strike in a decade.

Workers are angry over plans to restructure the company, though Royal Mail argues it has to change in order to compete with rival firms.

Staff has rejected a 2.5% pay offer and says they are worried that modernization plans will see jobs cut.

Deputy General Secretary of the CWU, Dave Ward, said that the strike could be averted if Royal Mail entered negotiations.

Last week’s post strike was the first national walkout in a decade

Royal Mail said it was “deeply disappointed” with plans for a second strike which would disrupt customers and “achieve nothing”.

Royal Mail and the CWU disagreed over how successful last Friday’s strike had been.

The union dismissed as “nonsense” Royal Mail claims that nationally up to 60% of its staff were working, saying that 95% of staff took part in industrial action.

The CWU has argued that Royal Mail’s plans for modernization will lead to 40,000 job losses.

But Royal Mail has said it needs to change the way it operates after the UK’s postal market was opened up to competition.

And earlier this year, Royal Mail was ditched by the Department for Work and Pensions in favor of UK Mail.

Companies are unhappy at the prospect of disruption to services, and the Federation of Small Businesses has warned that further strikes would put the livelihoods and jobs of many people in small firms “at risk”.