UK CWU postpones strike ballot in favour of more talks
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has backed away from a damaging strike, allowing more time for talks with Royal Mail. The union represents 160,000 Royal Mail staff who are threatening to walk out over pay and job cuts. Strikes would seriously disrupt cash flow and possibly even bankrupt the troubled British postal operator.
Leaders of the CWU have delayed voting on industrial action after meeting with political pressure to avert Britain’s first national postal strike since 1996. The ballot, due to begin on August 21, has been postponed by at least a week. In the meantime, the union has asked for more talks with Royal Mail negotiators at the conciliation service, Acas.
Informal talks broke down last week when the parties failed to see eye-to-eye over pay and the drastic restructuring envisaged by Royal Mail as it aims to become a smaller and more dynamic business. The company has offered workers a 14.5% rise over 18 months linked to productivity changes and some 30,000 job losses. The CWU claims that this offer contains only 4.5% of guaranteed pay rises, with the rest tied to performance targets. It insists that most of the money should be paid up front and be decoupled from changes in working practices.
However, Royal Mail’s chief executive Adam Crozier has said that without the changes Royal Mail wants, which include ending the second daily mail delivery, its pay offer is unaffordable. Mr Crozier also warned that a strike could debilitate Royal Mail, disrupting cash flow and prompting regulator Postcomm to suspend its monopoly – allowing competitors to take advantage. Mr Crozier told union leaders, “It’s simple: if postmen and women walk out, customers will walk away and competitors walk in.”
Although its industrial relations have improved in recent years, Royal Mail faces inevitable resistance from workers as it tries to adapt to the tough new marketplace that liberalization has imposed upon it. With competitors rallying forces for entry into the UK mail business, and recent unfavorable decisions by Postcomm, the loss-making national operator feels itself undermined on several fronts. Royal Mail must hope that it can walk away from the negotiations with a settlement that will not wreck its road to recovery.
