The Communication Workers Union (CWU) – which represents Post Office workers – has served notice that the next Post Office strike action will be taking place on Monday the 11th of July. This follows the recent action by Crown Post Offices workers over the Queen’s Jubilee weekend.
The next Post Office strike action is all about workers pay, who last year voted overwhelmingly to take strike action by 97.3%. The Union are saying they effectively have a pay freeze and a management pay offer of 3% with effect from April 1st 2022 and a £500 lump sum fee has been rejected as being ‘woefully inadequate’.
Many Post Offices are run by third parties and they will still be open. It’s likely that most main town centre location are Crown Post Offices and will be impacted by strike action, but those run by the likes of Tesco whose staff run my local Post Office will still be behind their counters ready to serve you. Be prepared to look for an alternative location if your regular Post Office isn’t able to take your post that day.
Also Royal Mail are separate from the Post Office and so parcels will still be collected. As a last resort, consider printing your labels at send.royalmail.com and drop them at your local delivery office (or if you are using Tracked services just book a FREE collection from home or office.
This year is going to be punctuated by Strikes from many industry sectors from BA to BT, with even courts affected by striking Barristers, and of course potentially Royal Mail. We should know the ballot result and find out if the country is to be held to a Royal Mail strike ransom on the 19th of July, a week after this next Post Office Strike.
No worker wants to be in this situation, but Post Office bosses can’t be surprised that callous decisions are challenged by our members. This dispute is about dignity and respect for hard-working employees – essential public servants who, as key workers, provided unprecedented customer service during the pandemic.
Our members feel betrayed and will not tolerate their living standards being smashed by people in charge of a public service that due to our members’ efforts made tens of millions of pounds in annual profits. There is more than enough money for a reasonable pay rise – implementing this pay cut is a management choice, not a necessity.
Our message to the public is that this action and any inconvenience caused is 100 per cent the fault of the Post Office leadership.
To Post Office bosses, our message is: get real on pay, get round the bargaining table for meaningful negotiations and settle this dispute, or further action will be taken.
– Andy Furey, Assistant Secretary, CWU
