Postal workers vote on national strike | Business

Ballot papers for industrial action that could lead to the first national postal strike in more than a decade will be sent out next week.

Yesterday the Communication Workers Union formally served notice of the ballot in a row over Royal Mail’s attempts to bring in automated parcel-sorting hubs and delivery schedules — or what the union called a campaign of “management propaganda, an insulting so-called ‘pay offer’ and impositions of drastic changes without agreement”.

The result of the vote of 100,000 CWU members who work for Royal Mail is due in the middle of next month. Last week Royal Mail tried to avert a strike by offering CWU workers a 6 per cent pay rise over three years.

Royal Mail is the former state-owned