Christmas period strikes to continue as posties attack Royal Mail “gross mismanagement”

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

16/11/2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Posties attack Royal Mail “gross mismanagement” in failures of talks and Christmas period strikes loom

 

Postal workers have accused Royal Mail bosses of “gross mismanagement”, as talks aimed at resolving the ongoing national dispute have not yet been successful and strikes in the Christmas build-up look set to go ahead.

 

As Royal Mail Group announces its latest financial situation tomorrow (Thursday 17th November), CWU General Secretary Dave Ward has accused the Royal Mail Group CEO Simon Thompson and the Board of creating deep financial problems by continually engaging in “dramatic errors of judgement”.

 

The union, which represents postal workers, will now continue strikes planned for Thursday 24th November, Friday 25th November, Wednesday 30th November and Thursday 1st December.

 

While the union recognises progress in recent negotiations has been made in some aspects, Royal Mail management failed to put any commitments into writing. Talks will now continue.

 

CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “No business making record profits of £758 million in May this year should not be losing over £1 million a day in a matter of weeks without gross mismanagement.

 

“The truth is that the current senior leadership of Royal Mail have been treating employees, union representatives or future investors with a lack of integrity and transparency.

 

“Dramatic errors of judgement have been made, like announcing 10,000 job losses to threaten striking workers, abandoning previous agreements and handing over £567 million to shareholders while neglecting the pay of employees who generated that profit.

 

“Many things remain unexplained, like giving up Royal Mail’s household name in favour of ‘International Distributions Services’, refusing the union’s offer to escalate negotiations and ignoring the unrivalled network of Royal Mail Group to create new financial opportunities.

 

“We firmly believe these reckless decisions have been informed by power struggles in the boardroom, in the full knowledge of a potential future takeover bid – backed up by the government’s green-lighting of VESA to increase their shareholding.

 

“Postal workers need a deal that works for them, the communities they love and the industry they loyally serve, not one that covers up for CEO and boardroom failures.

 

“The CWU – or this country – will never accept Royal Mail becoming another Uber-style gig economy courier.

 

“32 million households and countless small businesses are relying on this dispute to be over for the Christmas period. The pattern of behaviour displayed by Royal Mail top brass suggests they couldn’t care less about resolving any of this.”

 

ENDS

 

For further press enquiries, please contact CWU Press Officer Marcus Barnett at mbarnett@cwu.org.