The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has confirmed that their planned strike on December 23 and 24 will go ahead as planned after Royal Mail rejected an offer to sort out the ongoing dispute.
A statement released on Twitter by the CWU read: “Further to the update this afternoon, we can confirm that within hours of receiving our letter, Royal Mail Group have rejected our attempt to resolve the dispute.
“The strikes planned for 23/24 December will go ahead. We remain available for further talks facilitated by ACAS.”
ACAS is the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service that aims to resolve disputes such as this between the postal workers and their private owners, Royal Mail.
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In short, the members of the CWU claim the dispute from their request for a pay rise that ‘fully addresses the cost-of-living crisis’.
On their website, the union adds: “Our members need it, our members deserve it – the company can afford it.”
More than 98 percent of the workers in the CWU voted for this second round of strikes, following on from the first in August and September.
They claim that Royal Mail are eroding rights such as sick pay and threatening the job security of worker.
When the strikes were first announced in November, a spokesperson said: “The CWU want a negotiated settlement with Royal Mail Group and will continue to engage the company to that end.
“But those in charge of Royal Mail need to wake up and realise we won’t allow them to destroy the livelihoods of postal workers.”
A statement from Royal Mail reads: "Throughout December, we have urged the CWU to call off their strike action and work together to deliver Christmas for our customers.
"The CWU have consistently refused our offer to do so, choosing instead to repackage old pay offers, absent of the change needed to fund the pay deal, in the misleading guise of new proposals to resolve the pay and change dispute.
"Our priority is to deliver for our customers, and this has never been more important as we approach Christmas.
"We would like to thank the increasing number of posties returning to work each strike day.
"They have been joined by thousands of employees from across the business who have swapped their regular day jobs to work in the operation as we focus all our efforts on delivering Christmas for our customers."
On their website, Royal Mail advises that Customer Service Points will be closed on December 23 and 24, meaning that anyone who has received a card asking them to collect a parcel should do so before those strike dates.
They also claim they’ll be ‘doing what [they] can to keep services running, but [they] are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption.”
LADbible has contacted CWU for an updated comment.
Tom Wood