BREAKING: Royal Mail bosses reject Christmas truce, strikes to go ahead

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

20/12/2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ROYAL MAIL REJECT CHRISTMAS TRUCE, STRIKES TO GO AHEAD 

After Royal Mail Group’s senior leadership have rejected an offer of negotiations to resolve the ongoing dispute, postal workers will be striking on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th December.

An offer extended to the company to suspend the strikes and establish a period of calm from now until the 16thJanuary 2023, as well as the union and the company both signing a Joint Statement incorporating Royal Mail’s latest promise of no. compulsory redundancies, was rejected almost immediately.

The strikes will be the 17th and 18th days of action in an increasingly bitter dispute, and look set to end any hopes of huge amounts of Christmas post being delivered in the period.

The management’s rejection of any talks falls on the eve of National Postal Workers Day (21st December) – an annual event which celebrates the role that posties play in British life – and following a recent boast that Royal Mail bosses have amassed a £1.7 billion ‘war chest’ to destroy postal workers’ livelihoods.

CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “For Royal Mail Group to reject our offer just hours after receiving it demonstrates that they were never serious about saving Christmas for customers and businesses.

“When a company openly boasts of having built a £1.7 billion fund to crush its own workers rather than use that money to settle the dispute and restore the service, then you know dark forces are clearly at work.

“Their sole intention is to destroy the jobs of postal workers and remove their union from the workplace.

“Our members will not stand for this, and further action will take place in 2023.

“Our message to the public and businesses is that postal workers do not want to be here, but they are facing an aggressive, reckless and out-of-control CEO committed to wrecking their livelihoods.”

ENDS

CWU General Secretary Dave Ward will be available for interview and comment on pickets at Charlton Delivery Office, 25 Horn Lane, London, SE10 0DP from 7am onwards. Please e-mail cwebb@cwu.org for media and interview requests.