Strike looms over Royal Mail UK pensions move
The Royal Mail’s decision to close its final salary pension scheme to new entrants has drawn a furious reponse from unions and raised the spectre of strike action to oppose the move.
The London Divisional Committee of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) called on the CWU’s Postal Executive to “mobilise the union’s membership to oppose these plans and to build a campaign to ballot the membership of the whole of Royal Mail Group for industrial action.”
It also blasted a proposed share scheme for Royal Mail’s 190,000 employees, worth up to 5,300 stg per worker over five years, as a “backdoor route to privatisation.”
CWU divisional representative Martin Walsh said: “Our members will not tolerate the closing down of the pension scheme and/or the reduction of benefits to any current or future members, and unless Royal Mail group withdraws from its position on pensions or the Phantom share scheme, industrial action looks inevitable.”
Fellow CWU official Mark Palfrey added: “It is our view that the Labour Government has masterminded the unnecessary imposition of competition, backdoor privatisation and the undermining of all Postal services.” Joel Dimmock: +44 (0) 20 7422 4809; [email protected] jad/slm
