Notice of industrial action received from CWU - message from CEO Simon Thompson
We have now received notification of industrial action from the CWU.
The CWU have informed Royal Mail that they intend to take four days of strike action on Friday 26 August, Wednesday 31 August, Thursday 8 September and Friday 9 September.
After more than three months of talks, the CWU have failed to engage in any meaningful discussion on the changes we need to modernise or to come up with alternative ideas. The CWU rejected our offer worth up to 5.5% for CWU grade colleagues, the biggest increase we have offered for many years.
In a business that is currently losing £1 million pounds a day, we can only fund this offer by agreeing the changes that will pay for it. That is the only way forward for a business that is currently loss-making.
Industrial action is a significant act of self-harm
Industrial action would be the most significant act of self-harm we could inflict on ourselves.
The CWU has a responsibility to recognise the reality of the situation we face as a business, and to work with us to secure the changes needed to protect jobs long term. We have offered to open our books and share the reality of our financial situation in full.
We will now put our contingency plans into action so that we can minimise disruption for customers as much as possible, and we will do all we can to keep people, businesses and the country connected. Please look out for more information over the coming days.
A deal for tomorrow, not just today
Royal Mail can have a bright future, but it can’t achieve that by living in the past.
By modernising we can offer customers more of what they want at a price they are willing to pay, all whilst protecting jobs and the best terms and conditions in our industry.
Customers want more biggerr parcels, delivered the next day – including Sundays – and they want more environmentally friendly options too. Agreeing changes so we can adapt quickly and flexibly to these trends is what our discussions with CWU are all about.
The CWU’s failure to engage on the changes we need is an abdication of responsibility for the long term job security of their members. We are ready to talk further with the CWU to try and avert damaging industrial action but, as we have consistently said, it must be about both change and pay.
I’m confident that if we can work together to make the changes we need, Royal Mail can have a bright future.
We can win, I am sure of that.
But only if we change, and change now.
I Wrote-During Covid-Which is still relevant now
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been. My BFF Clash The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
Sorry Si, but discussions work both ways. You are inflexible, untrustworthy, greedy, malicious and deceitful. Anything you say that happens to be the truth is lost in your lies and corporate bull. I hope your beloved shareholders lose their shirts and you not only lose your job, but end up blacklisted and bankrupt, your only hope of employment working for minimum wage as an Amazon courier.
Sorry but if we lose this, then the job I've done for 2 decades would be unrecognizable to the point where I would have to question how I could continue to do it. So in the words of terry " I'd rather smash it to pieces, than hand it over to them"
Sorry Si, but discussions work both ways. You are inflexible, untrustworthy, greedy, malicious and deceitful. Anything you say that happens to be the truth is lost in your lies and corporate bull. I hope your beloved shareholders lose their shirts and you not only lose your job, but end up blacklisted and bankrupt, your only hope of employment working for minimum wage as an Amazon courier.
Can see this going nuclear, all of us being dismissed then offered a place on new terms and £9.50 a hour take it or leave it.
Stop talking s**t.
You're starting to cross the line between someone with a different opinion and someone with a different agenda.
Stop trying to noise people up, it's childish s**t.
Can see this going nuclear, all of us being dismissed then offered a place on new terms and £9.50 a hour take it or leave it.
Do you believe they could replace 140,000 staff members? In a time of record job vacancies? By the time they have filled a few thousand jobs royal mail would be bankrupt.
