Royal Mail condemns ‘deplorable’ CWU threat

Royal Mail has condemned the CWU’s threat of a national strike as a “blatant and deplorable attack on customers and on the future of the UK postal service”. On 13 October, the CWU wrote a letter to Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director, demanding several changes to company policy if Royal Mail wants to avoid national strike action.

Responding to the CWU’s offer, Higson said: “Over the last few months the CWU called repeatedly for a moratorium on change in return for a pause in change at Royal Mail. Two weeks ago we confirmed that we would be making no further changes this year. Since then the union has failed to deliver on the promised moratorium, has called strikes in more than 150 delivery offices and threatened a national strike which is intended to damage our customers and the entire postal service.

“The CWU has written to us with a ‘peace offer’ which is in reality a series of fresh demands against Royal Mail. If they are genuinely interested in peace, I challenge them now to live up to their claims to care about customers and the future of the postal service and to honour their pledge to call off all strikes.”