Tens of thousands of telecoms workers for BT and Openreach have continued to strike after initially walking out on Tuesday (August 30), with over one hundred thousand Royal Mail workers joining them in industrial action on Wednesday (August 31).
The telecoms workers on strike number some 40,000, while around 115,000 Royal Mail workers have also downed tools.
The strikes have caused delays and disruption in the mail system, with packages and letters failing to reach their destinations in usual time. Royal Mail has confirmed that it will be unable to provide compensation for affected customers who have paid additional charges for premium postage services.
Royal Mail staff are also planning to strike again on Thursday September 8 and Friday September 9, as unions demand pay rises for their members amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Members of the Communication Workers Union [CWU] have already rebuffed Royal Mail’s offer of a two per cent pay increase and wants wages to be hiked to a level which “covers” the current cost-of-living. CWU members working for BT and Openreach have made the same demands.
Hitting out at the union, Royal Mail said in a statement: “The CWU's self-centred actions with the wider trade union movement is putting jobs at risk, and making pay rises less affordable... making Royal Mail's future more uncertain than at any time in its long history.”
But CWU general secretary Dave Ward said that workers would not be pushed into accepting “a massive deterioration in their living standards” and the strikes were going ahead as a direct protest.
Ward also said that CWU members working for Royal Mail had “lost faith” in its leadership.
He continued: “We are going to fight hard to get our members the pay deal that they deserve,” he continued.
However, Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson said that adhering to the CWU’s demands was unaffordable.
He said: “Our reality is that the Covid bubble has burst, and we can see the economic situation around us all. And our reality today is we are losing £1 million a day.
“The change that we need is to pivot our business from a business that was built for letters into a business that can now win in the parcels market.”
Strike action has been dominated news headlines across the summer, with refuse and transport workers also having walked out in recent weeks. NHS staff and teachers are also in discussions over industrial action in the autumn, with major unions Unite and Unison suggesting that they will co-ordinate their walkouts to strengthen the hand of workers.
Meanwhile, Wednesday evening will bring the final Conservative leadership contest hustings with favourite Liz Truss likely to be grilled on the details of her plans to address the cost-of-living crisis.
Truss has previously insisted that she will look at the “full facts” before setting out measures should she be elected to Number 10, with such plans to be made public ahead of the Conservative party conference at the end of September.
Photo by Roger Blackwell from Norwich, UK, uploaded by Edward on Wikimedia Commons
