At the end of last week, Royal Mail won an in junction in the High Court to halt a strike by the CWU (Communications Workers Union).
The planned stoppage, now cancelled, would have seen posties walk out from 11am on Thursday for 48 hours.
We’ve written about this several times. But it’s worth giving the CWU position. This video from Thursday contains some initial reaction.
And their official statement regarding the strike is on this page. Here is some of what they say.
CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said “The company are deluded if they believe their court room politics will resolve this dispute. Instead the company’s actions will have the complete opposite effect. Postal Workers’ attitude towards the company will harden and it makes us more determined than ever to defend our members pensions, jobs, service and achieve our objectives.”
“Unless the company significantly shifts its position on a range of issues and we can quickly conclude a good agreement for our members then strike action is inevitable. “
“We walked into the court today with a massive 90% yes vote for strike action – we walked out of the court today with a massive 90% vote for strike action. We want an agreement and will comply with the injunction to undertake further external mediation. But sooner rather than later Royal Mail Group will have to confront the harsh reality that they are completely out of touch with the views of its workforce.“
As it now stands, because the courts have found in favour of Rotal Mail, it seems most unlikely there will be strikes in the Mail service before Christmas.
24 Responses
Right behind our union?moya and her cronies are running the job I love into the ground. Getting greedier by the week?
I have worked for the company for over 17 year and I got to say it hit rock bottom and now what they are trying to do is taking the biscuit . I hope the cwu stay strong till the end
How come a failing company (as top management keep calling us) still continue to hand out huge bonuses to those in charge? Surely they should lead by example and refuse them, hold their heads in shame and say let’s get together with the cwu and thrash out an agreement, we don’t want a strike but 90% of us have said we are willing to do it. Royal Mail’s court injunction is just putting off the inevitable, unless they just want to run the company into the ground and profit handsomely from its demise?!
Moya accepts 23 % pay rise and we’re expected to take a drop in pay which is effectively what they’re wanting, can anyone else see what’s wrong here? If they can offer that pay to her, why can we not have a little more???
RMG Now a PLC – Welcome to the real word of business.
Management now have to perform within the real world & not hide behind the “Royal Charter” that protected jobs and services….
Shareholders need paying (which most RM employees are).
Careful for what you wish for. This will come back to bite you.
It’s such a competitive market – if you make users find another supplier they wont rush back to RMG and that will again have a negative effect on jobs..
Talking to our postie he was delighted to take the job, and its conditions 12 months ago
He tells us in general it’s those that have years of service that are not happy
Mr grumpy,all we hear is comments from people like you saying don’t bite the hand that feeds you,and companies will stop using Royal Mail if there are strikes.tell me what other company delivers letters to every household from lands end to john ogroats for the same price.people have used Royal Mail for years and will continue to use Royal Mail because unlike many delivery firms they are trustworthy and will continue to be so.you forget that us postal workers are fighting for our jobs,our pensions and we want to provide the best service to the public,like we have done for many years until this great institution was privatised and greedy management have run our great service into the ground.dont lay the blame on the workers, instead aim your misguided comments to the management who are slowly destroying this company for their own greed and to line the pockets of so called Investors who don’t care if the company ceases to exist as long as they make a quick buck.
Helen – the shareholders can demand a change in CEO pay? If enough of them agree. Advantage or disadvantage is the CEO can leave. Attracting a new CEO requires pay…
So we won’t be striking until after Christmas. Just what Royal mail wanted but totally useless to us. Perhaps we should all consider work to rule in the meantime.
In my office you have to look on the floor for a rubber band there’s no trolleys and at times no p739. Royal Mail has had its day just a matter of time!! Very poor run company.
If Royal Mail bring in the changes they want to bring in then the public and the businesses will go to the competition and Royal Mail would be finished .comonsense would be to ask the postmen who have been there for years who keep saying these changes will not work but all Royal Mail wants is to look at bottom line and don’t worry about the service .wake up everybody out there 90% voted to strike anyone with brains only has to look that’s how much Royal Mail is blind to its workforce if they think what they are surgesting will work.please standby your postmen and women
I disagree with many of the comments made
1. Where can you get paid 26500 for a 22.5 hour week ? London mail centres and London driving duties. I know this seems out of reach of most delivery people in the country, and I’m sorry for that. But that is how it is.
2. Terms and conditions, putting aside for one moment pensions , are very very good In royal mail.
3. My pension will take a huge knock , but I also understand that RM paying over 1 billion pounds a year is unsustainable.
4. I firmly believe that cwu’s position is driven by politics. £500 000 donation to labour. Affiliation to momentum. Mr Ward a key supporter of Jeremy Cornyn. Testing the new trade union rules. Unite’ s leadership calling for across the board industrial unrest to undermine the government and help promote an early election and so on.
Don’t get me wrong I’m no Tory, can’t stand them – can’t stand any politicians. But the downside to pre Xmas or post Xmas industrial action is loss of business, to such an extent that I fear for my job and those of my colleagues.
To say industrial action will not affect royal mail is such a blatant lie , regardless of the uso, that people must have there heads stuck in the sand.
I fear a protracted period of industrial unrest because there is too much of a gulf in both sides positions.
On the management side they cannot afford an additional 800 million without the company going insolvent.
On the unions side, they realise this , but will forment industrial action to get jezza in as prime minister because then we will have a socialist utopia.
In the meantime I will be awaiting the first of many compulsory redundancies, with my fingers crossed that I will be near the bottom of the list
Just one question, if you’re willing to strike because of the changes to the Royal Mail pension, are you then going to leave the CWU in protest over their pension scheme changes?
Oh so it’s the work force faults there’s no rubber bands your a very smart guy Alan!! Shows you know nothing about Royal Mail. So to me your opinion counts for nothing. Seems you have to much time on your hands looking at this web site.
£26.000 for 22.5 hours work who are you kidding. Don’t know where you guys get these figures from but it is very amusing ?
Has Alan Patterson got any friends or is the internet his only friend? Needs to socialize a bit more
Joe what office are you at £26500 for 22.5 hour week, I fell off my seat with laughter. I don’t think so. Less than half of that in the real world. Try checking your facts next time.
I get £50,000 for a1 hour week with a half hour dinner break 51 weeks holiday a year a one million pound pension and I can come in anytime I want it’s great being a postie!!! Don’t know who you dumb asses are listening to or what drugs you are on but your very amusing
I wish I was in your world it must be fantastic?are you drunk all the time?