POSTAL workers have voted to extend strike action into the new year as they prepare for four days of walkouts this month against mass layoffs and pay cuts.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) voted 91.24 per cent in favour to extend the strike period on a 65.21 per cent turnout today, adding to stoppages this and next month. Industrial action by 115,000 postal workers will take place on November 24, 25, 30 and December 1, adding to eight previous days of strikes.

The CWU has accused Royal Mail’s bosses of repeated “dramatic errors of judgement” and “gross mismanagement” which have seen the company’s record profits of £758 million in May this year plummet to a loss of £1m a day now.

CWU acting deputy general secretary (postal) Andy Furey said: “This dispute has always been about a company having respect for dedicated public servants who, as key workers, provided unprecedented customer service during the pandemic. The determination of these people hasn’t swayed, and nor has their sense of betrayal.”

Royal Mail made a plea to the government today to be allowed to suspend deliveries of letters on a Saturday to ease the company’s burdens.

Talks between CWU and Royal Mail will continue in the run-up to the strikes.

Royal Mail says it has proposed a 9 per cent pay increase in the face of CPI inflation standing at 11.1 per cent. 

However, the company also wants 10,000 redundancies by August next year.

CWU accused Royal Mail of failing to put any of its commitments in writing.

The union’s  general secretary Dave Ward said: “No business making record profits of £758m in May this year should be losing over £1m a day in a matter of weeks without gross mismanagement.

“The truth is that the current senior leadership of Royal Mail have been treating employees, union representatives or future investors with a lack of integrity and transparency.

“Dramatic errors of judgement have been made, like announcing 10,000 job losses to threaten striking workers, abandoning previous agreements and handing over £567m to shareholders while neglecting the pay of employees who generated that profit.

“Postal workers need a deal that works for them, the communities they love and the industry they loyally serve, not one that covers up for chief executive and boardroom failures.

“The CWU — or this country — will never accept Royal Mail becoming another Uber-style gig economy courier.

“Thirty-two million households and countless small businesses are relying on this dispute to be over for the Christmas period.”
Royal Mail expects full-year losses of around £350-450m and said talks will continue “but time is tight given the notified strikes starting on November 24.”