Royal Mail workers begin wave of Christmas strikes

[livewirer]

Royal Mail workers begin wave of Christmas strikes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63903488

By Tom Espiner & Dearbail Jordan
Business reporters, BBC News
Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a fresh wave of strikes in the run-up to Christmas in a long-running row with management over pay and conditions.

More than 115,000 staff walked out on Friday in the 13th day of industrial action this year, with more strikes to follow in the coming days.

While millions of pieces of mail will be sorted, much will not be delivered until strikers return to work.

Recent talks between the CWU union and Royal Mail have broken down.

Members of the CWU union are expected to continuing striking on Sunday as well as on 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.

Although there are no letter deliveries on Sundays, there are parcel deliveries, and Royal Mail also processes mail on a Sunday for delivery on a Monday.

Last week, Royal Mail advised people to post Christmas mail earlier than usual due to the strikes.

The union has said staff want a pay rise that matches the soaring cost of living and has accused management of trying to "force through thousands of compulsory redundancies".

Royal Mail wants to cut 10,000 jobs by next August, which will include 6,000 redundancies. It also wants to modernise how the business works to accommodate a rise in parcel deliveries and the continued decline in letter volumes, which would mean changing workers' hours.

On Friday, workers carrying placards demanding the removal of Royal Mail's chief executive Simon Thompson, gathered outside the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in London - the company's largest sorting site in the UK.

One employee Nick, who has worked for Royal Mail for 38 years, told the BBC that although he had walked-out during previous strikes, the distance between management and unions appeared to him to be wider in this wave of industrial action.

"It seems to me there's not really a negotiation. It is a take it or leave it deal where they are attacking our terms and conditions."

Inside the sorting office, parcels and letters continued to be sorted by a skeleton crew of 100 people, compared to the 1,000 employees who normally work at the centre.

Joy, who has been with Royal Mail for 28 years, told the BBC he had chosen to come to work on a strike day because "I want to please my customers because of the peak time".

He said that firms are worried about business after the height of the Covid pandemic. "They need their letters and their mail ASAP," he said."I want to keep moving the mail."

[pieoftheday]

I do hope Joy pleased his customers today at peak time ( imagine your own name for him here)