Low salaries and later starting times were two of the reasons postal workers took to the picket lines in Sheffield today.
The Officer for the South Yorkshire branch of the CWU Rohan Kon said pay has become so insufficient that she and her partner “have had to ring our families this week to ask them can you not to buy us any Christmas presents because we can’t afford to buy you any back.”
Members of Royal Mail’s Communication Workers Union (CWU) have entered a second consecutive day of national industrial action asking for a pay rise in line with inflation and to protect their current working conditions.
Union members are angry about proposed changes to dilute sick pay and plans to instigate flexible hours alongside Sunday shifts. There is also a proposal to introduce later starting times.
Ms Kon said: “This would mean we would be working in the hottest part of the day in the summer and in the dark in the winter. It means people who have kids wouldn’t be able to pick them up from school. These are just changes we can’t accept.”
Ms Kon said postmen and women made almost one billion pounds for Royal Mail throughout the pandemic, but this money was not being invested back into workforce.
Royal Mail’s CEO Simon Thompson said: “Talks have lasted for seven months and we have made numerous improvements and two pay offers, which would now see up to a 9% pay increase over 18 months alongside a host of other enhancements. This is our best and final offer.”
He has accused the UWU of “holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country, and is putting their own members’ jobs at risk.”
Hayden James Sally, from the Sheffield City Centre Callers Office, said he was disappointed that profits made in the pandemic were not being spent on staff. He said: “Mr Thompson and his executives decided to dish out all the dividends to all the big-time shareholders and then told us we’ve got no money for anything else.”
Strike dates have been announced for Wednesday 30th November, Thursday 1st December, Friday 9th December and Sunday 11th December 2022. Further dates may be announced in the New Year if Royal Mail and the CWU cannot reach an agreement.
