Royal Mail has informed the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU)
that it will proceed with its preparations to move the business
forward despite the union’s announcement of further industrial
action. After talks concluded on 9th September with no agreement
reached, the CWU released a statement it which it claimed Royal
Mail had put a stop to the “period of calm” and was
going to pursue its reform plans.
The statement from the CWU said that even though some progress
has been made in a number of areas, including pay, further
strikes will take place before the end of September.”
Royal Mail’s offer to the union includes a 2.5 percent increase in basic pensionable pay, an £800 bonus if performance targets are hit and a 50 percent share in any savings made above target at local level. According to the CWU, however, the industrial action of the past summer was over much more than pay: in June, Dave Ward, the CWU’s deputy general secretary, postal, commented that Royal Mail’s plans include “40,000 job losses, later deliveries, reductions in collections, reductions in weekend services… closure of delivery offices and mail centres and the destruction of the rural and crown post office network”.
Royal Mail maintains its position, seeking change and modernisation. “Royal Mail is already losing business because our costs and therefore our prices are too high and our business customers are choosing to go elsewhere,” it said in a statement. It added that following the government’s £1.2 billion commercial loan, Royal Mail is in “a unique opportunity in its history to invest in its service and improve its efficiency and competitiveness”.
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