Royal Mail: “We remain ready to talk with the CWU”

As industrial action by Communication Workers Union (CWU) continues, Royal Mail says that it “remain ready to talk with the CWU to try and avert damaging industrial action and prevent significant inconvenience for customers” – but it maintains its position that “any talks must be about both change and pay”.

In a statement posted on its website today (31 August), Royal Mail repeated its claim that it is “losing £1million a day and the CWU’s strike action is making our situation worse”.

Royal Mail also gave an update on its operational status, reporting that, on the CWU’s first strike day, “more than 850 offices were operational”. The company added that teams “worked tirelessly” over the Bank Holiday weekend to implement “recovery plans” and “ensure NHS letters and critical government mailings were prioritised”.

Royal Mail said that it wanted to establish a dialogue with the CWU – but added that the union would have to be prepared to discuss “the changes we need to make as a business”.

“Our future is as a parcels business,” insisted Royal Mail. “We must adapt old ways of working designed for letters to a world increasingly dominated by parcels and act fast. We cannot cling to outdated working practices, ignoring technological advancements and pretending that Covid has not significantly changed what the public wants from Royal Mail.”

According to the CWU, 115,000 postal workers are taking part in today’s walk-out – which follows on from last week’s industrial action, and will be followed by further strike action on Thursday and Friday next week ( 8 and 9 September).

In a statement issued yesterday (30 August) ahead of this week’s strike,  CWU General Secretary Dave Ward questioned Royal Mail’s claims of “£1 million a day losses”, arguing: ““When Royal Mail bosses are raking in £758 million in profit and shareholders pocketing in excess of £400 million, our members won’t accept pleads of poverty from the company.”