Royal Mail postal workers to strike on Black Friday

Royal Mail workers have announced a series of 48-hour strikes around Black Friday and Cyber Monday in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

With Black Friday on 25 November and Cyber Monday on 28 November, the new Royal Mail strikes will take place around the busiest online shopping weekend of the year on 24 and 25 November.

In addition, Royal Mail workers are also set to strike on 30 November and 1 December.

The Communication Workers' Union's General Secretary, Dave Ward, said the 48-hour strikes are partly in response to the "Uberisation" of Royal Mail, including widespread changes over introducing Uber-style owner-drivers, mail centre closures and changes to Sunday working.

The union will hold a vote among members to reject the deal Royal Mail attempted to place in front of employees, as well as over whether workers have confidence in Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson.

Dave Ward, CWU General Secretary, said: “Posties are in the fight of their lives against the Uberisation of Royal Mail and the destruction of their conditions. But 115,000 of our members will not just accept this war on their livelihoods and their industry. They will never give up the fight to protect this industry and to protect their working conditions. Simon Thompson has to either accept that or walk away – until he does one or the other, serious disruption will continue.”

Andy Furey, CWU Acting Deputy General Secretary, said: “Simon Thompson’s plan is evident – they want to destroy this company as we know it. They want outsourcing, casualisation, the decimation of working practices and pay. But so many of our members have given their entire working lives to building this company. They deserve a much better deal than what is on offer, and Simon Thompson is on another planet if he thinks we’ll stop fighting to achieve that.”