Fresh call for postal strike talks offers glimmer of hope

Royal Mail 2The direct mail industry could – just could – be in for some festive cheer after postal union bosses appear to have “blinked first” over their bitter dispute with Royal Mail, calling for last-minute talks with bosses in a bid to save the Christmas mail.

Only last week, Communication Workers Union officials rejected an 11th hour pay offer from Royal Mail executives. At the time, the company said it was a “best and final” pay increase of up to 9% over 18 months, rather than the next two years. The company also offered improved family friendly hours for posties.

At the time, union officials accused Royal Mail bosses of “asset stripping” amid plans to cut 10,000 jobs, slamming the cutbacks as the “biggest assault on any group of UK workers in decades”.

Even so, Royal Mail has warned it is losing £1m a day and that the strikes have added £100m to its losses this year. Bosses want to modernise the service to offer seven-days-a week parcel deliveries, increase automation and introduce later finishing times.

Last week’s Black Friday walk-out went ahead as planned and further industrial action is still scheduled for Wednesday (November 30) as well as December 1, 9, 11, 14, 15, 23, 24, threatening to scupper Christmas deliveries of both direct mail and ecommerce parcels.

Chris Combemale, chief executive of industry body the DMA, has already slammed the walk-outs. Earlier this month he said: “While the DMA fully respects workers’ rights to have their say and be heard, this decision is counter-intuitive as ecommerce businesses are switching to couriers that do not have strikes planned and may not return to Royal Mail – creating further financial strains. The DMA is calling for a sensible and prompt resolution to this long-lasting stand-off.”

However, it seems there is now a glimmer of hope that a deal can be struck.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said this weekend that he has written to Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson calling for “intensive negotiations”, adding that the union is willing to reopen talks this week to avert the strike action.

Ward said he would also write to Royal Mail chairman Keith Williams and the company’s board with an alternative plan on working arrangements and pay.

A settlement in the dispute – which started in the summer – cannot come soon enough for the direct mail industry, with some warning that many companies could go under as a result of the action.

In October, one industry insider said: “This dispute has gone on far too long and ultimately there will be no winners; only losers. The direct mail industry has suffered enough, and this industrial action, following so soon after Covid, could be the nail in the coffin for many firms. For the sake of the sector, we need a settlement and we need it now – before it kills us.”

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