Royal Mail workers call off strikes for fortnight as talks continue

Strikes involving over 115,000 postal workers for a fortnight have been postponed, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said.

On Sunday morning, the union voted to withdraw industrial action over the next two weeks after receiving a letter from Royal Mail’s legal team.

The union claimed that the letter “attempted to undermine pre-existing strike ballots”.

The strikes are set to resume on Saturday, November 12.

Union secretaries say that they “entirely understand” the “anger” and “deep frustration” felt by members over the decision, however said it was a “necessary move to protect our dispute”.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “We recognise the deep frustration felt by many members over this decision.

“But the fact remains that the current direction of Royal Mail doesn’t benefit the company, the community or the country.

“We still need to secure a decent future of this industry, and no attempts to attack our union and our members will change our determination in fighting for that.

“The current focus of the coming days will be negotiations that can hopefully achieve a sensible deal to end this dispute.

“In the meantime, I appeal to our members to stand by their union – stay strong and don’t be provoked.”

CWU acting deputy general secretary Andy Furey said: “We entirely understand the anger felt by many over the decision, but we believe it is a necessary move to protect our dispute.

“Our members have been facing down serious harassment from the highest levels of Royal Mail as they defend their industry and those communities they serve.

“They will not be forced into submission so easily, and we will be reminding the company of their determination at ACAS in the coming days.”

Earlier this month, Royal Mail said it will consult on up to 10,000 redundancies after blaming striking workers for losses of £219m.

It said the move is in response to the “impact of industrial action, delays in delivering agreed productivity improvements and lower parcel volumes”.

The company is seeking short-term cost efficiencies through the planned reduction of 5,000 full time equivalent roles by March and around 10,000 by August.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The CWU has announced it has withdrawn planned strike action in the next two weeks.

“The CWU has withdrawn strike action following Royal Mail writing to CWU to highlight numerous material concerns with the formal notification of planned rolling strike action.

“Royal Mail and CWU have planned talks at Acas tomorrow, Monday October 31, 2022.

“We will continue to do all we can to keep business, companies and the country connected.”