Post workers’ union claims 95% support for walkout
Union leaders have clashed with the Royal Mail about the scale of support for the first national postal strike in more than a decade, which has crippled deliveries across the country.
The Royal Mail said backing for the walkout was “patchy”, claiming that up to 60 per cent of its staff were working nationally and up to 22 per cent in London. But the Communication Workers Union said 95 per cent of its members joined the stoppage, making it the best ever supported strike.
“The Royal Mail’s figures are as ridiculous as their pay offer,” said Bill Hayes, the union’s general secretary, yesterday. “The Royal Mail has been in denial about its workforce rejecting a 2.5 per cent pay offer and is now in denial about the overwhelming support for the strike,” he added.
Picket lines were mounted outside mail centres and sorting offices across the country from 3am. Workers at Crown post offices were also on strike until midday in a separate row over plans to transfer postal services into WH Smith stores.
The CWU warned of a fresh round of industrial action at the Royal Mail unless the deadlocked dispute over pay and modernisation is resolved, but it hopes to restart peace talks.
Managers delivered special delivery items and collected mail from post offices. A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The strike is simply ignoring the reality facing everyone in Royal Mail – that we are no longer a monopoly.” He added: “The dispute is about the whole future of Royal Mail and the absolutely urgent need to modernise, as our rivals have already done.”
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