• Around 200 Crown Post Office workers strike in Wales as part of UK wide action by the CWU
• Industrial action comes in response to a below-inflation pay deal as cost of living soars
• Royal Mail workers in the CWU are also gearing up for a possible pay strike, involving thousands of posties and office staff
Image: Port Talbot Crown Post Office workers on strike on Tuesday, via CWU Wales
A strike by post office workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) against a below-inflation pay deal took place on Tuesday.
Affecting workers in Crown Post Offices and those delivering cash to all post office ATMs, the strike came after 97% of union members backed action against a 2% pay deal.
The 24 hour walkout took place at every one of the UK’s 114 crown post offices, and there were no cash deliveries or collections for the 11,500 sub-post offices.
In Wales, around 200 workers took part in the strike, as post offices in Port Talbot, Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil were closed for business, and cash operations were affected for every post office.
The majority of post offices, called sub-post offices, were not on strike, mainly due to the effect of privatisation on the workforce which took place under the Tory – Lib Dem coalition government in 2012.
Mark Williams, CWU Assistant Regional Secretary for Wales and the Marches, told voice.wales that workers had suffered an out-and-out pay freeze since 2020 and had been offered just 2% this year, far below the current rate of inflation.
Inflation, which measures how much the cost of food, other goods and services is rising, is currently running at between 7% and 10%, meaning pay rises below that level leave workers out of pocket. Mark Williams added that the pay offer of 2% was also not backdated, fuelling workers anger.
“The appetite is there for more strike action,” he said. “Workers are feeling squeezed.”
“We don’t know what will happen next,” he said of potential talks following the strike. “There may be more strike action to come, workers need a pay rise.”
Royal Mail pay dispute
Running alongside the Crown Post Office dispute is also the fight for a pay rise by workers in Royal Mail, which affects postal delivery, collection and sorting workers.
The potential for strike amongst this far larger section of the workforce is growing after Royal Mail group offered a 3.5% pay rise with various strings attached.
Speaking to voice.wales, Amarjite Singh, CWU South East Wales Branch Secretary , said that around 7,000 postal workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) could strike across Wales as part of any action.
“We’re saying to the public, look, we worked through Covid for the last two years, and now that we’ve asked for a pay rise, they [Royal Mail] have offered only 3.5%,” he told voice.wales.
“Problem is, if you were to consider inflation, then the figure should be around 8% at least.”
“This is about the postal workers who have worked through the pandemic over the last two years, and for the postal workers who hadn’t survived [Covid],” Singh said.
“With everything going up around us, that’s fuel, food, bills, we’ve asked for a pay rise and they rejected our offer, yet they can pay out £400 million pounds to the shareholders. Is that fair?”
Amarjite Singh made the connection between what postal workers are going through and the way in which millions are facing rising bills whilst energy firms announce bumper profits.
“I’m sure the public will know what it feels like, when the money in your pocket is the same, but everything around you is going up.”
“Your mortgage has gone up, your electricity has gone up, your gas, the fuel in your vehicle to transport you around the corner, the clothes that you’re buying. And you’re supposed to live on the money that’s in your pocket?” he said.
Talks between the CWU and Royal Mail Group are ongoing but Mark Williams said that the employer had attached “more strings than a Thunderbirds puppet” to the 3.5% deal and if no better offer was made, workers would be balloted for action. The strings include taking larger deliveries and worsening working conditions,” Williams said.
“The pandemic was an extremely hard 2 years,” he said, adding that postal workers were inundated and it was like “Christmas everyday” with huge numbers of deliveries.
“And as we came out of the pandemic, Royal Mail gave £400Million to shareholders whilst their workers get below-inflation pay deals.”
