Postal workers vote in favour of strikes
By politics.co.uk staff
Postal workers have voted in favour of widespread industrial action at Royal Mail.
120,000 postal workers were balloted by the Communication Workers Union (CWU). 80,000 members voted and 67 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the strike.
CWU’s deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the decision to strike had “delivered a damning verdict” on Royal Mail.
“If we dont take a stand now then you will see postal services in the UK destroyed forever.”
He accused Royal Mail of running the company poorly and accused the government exacerbating the situation that had led to the strikes.
“The government has caused many of the problems that our members and customers face,” he said.
However, Royal Mail has described the threatened strike action as “wholly irresponsible”.
Royal Mail’s operations director Paul Tolhurst said: “We urge the CWU to abandon strikes and the threat of strikes, and focus on providing customers with the service they need and expect, rather than planning to hurt them with the threat of more strikes.”
Royal Mail wants to cut down the size of its workforce as mail levels fall – the average postbag today contains almost ten million fewer letters than just three years ago, it claims.
The company warned that strike action could have devastating consequences for the company.
Meanwhile, it was rumoured this morning that Amazon was considering changing its delivery provider if industrial action threatens to disrupt its customers Christmas orders.
The online retailer has yet to comment on whether the company has cancelled any long-term contracts with Royal Mail.
The union are meeting with members on Monday to decide on when to begin the industrial action. By law the union has to give seven days’ notice of any strike action.
