Royal Mail workers gathering to demonstrate in London in December 2022 as part of their pay campaign. Photo Workers.
Royal Mail postal delivery workers have settled their complex pay struggle after 11 months of well supported industrial action. The Communications Workers Union finally reached an agreement on 15 April 2023 that they will put to members.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward called it “an agreement that can stand the test of time, that moves us forward and moves the company forward...after the most bitter, most intense and high-risk dispute this union’s ever been involved in.”
Along with pay and conditions, CWU workers have been defending a universal postal delivery service against a privatised company that would really just like to get rid of it. They even threatened to put it into government administration if a deal was not agreed.
The agreement is a compromise – a 10 per cent pay increase and a lump sum of £500. But this has to reach back to April 2022 and extend through to April 2025.
The CWU has forced the company to abandon the introduction of owner-drivers and other attacks on conditions. But delivery start times will move to after 7am and there will be new seasonal working patterns.
• A longer version of this article is on the web at www.cpbml.org.uk.