Royal Mail workers say ‘escalating strikes is our only leverage’

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CWU union leaders’ strategy of talks, punctuated by one or two day strikes, has failed

Royal Mail union leaders have responded to an insulting pay offer from bosses by refusing to call strikes in the hope of more talks.

Bosses published an offer on Wednesday morning after declaring they’d ended talks with CWU union leaders without a deal.

The offer amounted to a three year pay cut and an assault on workers’ lives. Yet rather than calling action, union leaders insisted they’d hold out for an agreement—despite the fact they’ve got no more talks planned.

The headline of the offer for Royal Mail workers was a pay increase of ten percent over three years—in reality little more than 3 percent each year. With inflation still at 14 percent a year, that’s a massive real terms pay cut.

As for the sweeping assaults on workers’ lives—designed to smash the union and the workforce, and transform Royal Mail into a gig economy-style courier—none of that has been stopped.

Union leaders had spent weeks telling members that bosses had “moved” away from some of their planned attacks. Yet all they’d offered were small, often temporary concessions. (See below for more detail on the offer).

Speaking after Royal Mail published the offer, Parcelforce worker Gary Smith told Socialist Worker, “I hope everyone reacts with a lot of anger and says we have nothing to lose. The 10 percent all over three years comes to almost nothing. And a two-tier workforce is nothing at all.”

It came after some three months of negotiations, during which CWU union leaders had promised a deal was close.

Frustration had grown among Royal Mail workers as talks dragged on. An increasing number of workers took to the union’s own Facebook page to ask what the union was doing to stop workplace cuts—known as revisions—and to demand more action.

Yet in a video update on Friday, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said, “There’ll be people out there who say every other minute the right thing to do is go on strike. At the minute we don’t think that is the right thing to do.

“By far the best option for our members and for the future of the company from our perspective is to reach an agreement with the company.”

But all he could offer in alternative was to beg Royal Mail to come back to talks. “Perhaps there will be some further discussions, perhaps over the weekend or early in the week,” he said. 

They even said they could still get an agreement by the end of next week. That’s despite the fact, as he admitted, “There are elements of the senior management team who do not want an agreement with the union.”

Ward also spent much of his announcement cautioning workers that Royal Mail was in “a serious financial situation—the most serious it’s ever been.” It came after bosses hinted that strikes would force Royal Mail into administration. 

Royal blackMail—don’t give in to bosses’ new threats

It was a bit of blackmail designed to force union leaders—committed to keeping Royal Mail profitable—to heel. Ward said the union had to “recognise” Royal Mail’s financial situation and accept the need to “change”.

He went on to suggest he would accept some of the major attacks on working conditions—including later working hours.

“It’s a shame that the company didn’t make some of the moves that they’ve been making more recently, when we were in the position of those strikes,” he said. “Had they made some of them we could probably have reached an agreement.”

When the dispute began, union leaders talked as if they wanted to force Royal Mail to scrap its plans entirely. Now they’re showing signs that they’ll accept a deal on bosses’ terms. It should be proof that the strategy of talks, punctuated by one or two day strikes, has failed. 

And Gary said, “It feels like Dave and Andy have been trying to be business savvy with Royal Mail—and they’ve been done over.

“Since talks have been happening, their membership has come under attack, and their working lives have changed wholesale. The leadership needs to step up and do what’s right and call industrial action. Escalation of industrial action is the only leverage we have now.”

And after the update, one mail centre worker from Bristol told Socialist Worker, “Bristol wants to do something. But they’re chucking the strength of the union down the bloody drain.

“If they wrap it up and give us a shit deal we’ll be raking this out for ages. Look back at the rally we had in London. Look at the big ballot for strikes we had. Why are they tipping that down the drain? Why are they wasting that momentum?

They keep saying it’s complicated because they’re saying they’re looking at the company’s books. Why are we looking at their books? We run the place—we do it for them. Call a week’s strike and get it done, because this isn’t good enough.”

What’s in the offer? 

The offer demanded that the union give up fighting for more than the 2 percent increase bosses forced on workers in April last year. It then offered just 6 percent this year—with a £500, one-off bribe—and another tiny 2 percent increase after that. Alternatively, they could swap the final two around, making 2 percent this year—with a £1,500 bribe—and 6 percent the year after.

None of that is close to the proper pay rise that Royal Mail workers have struck for. They still want to force workers onto later hours, by as much as an hour and a half. They still want to be able to make workers stay out on delivery as late as 4:30pm. They still want to bring in seasonal hours—making workers do longer hours in the winter than in the summer.

And they’re sticking with attacks on workers’ sick pay—giving workers just three days of statutory sick pay if they’re sick twice in the year.

Bosses said they’d make no compulsory redundancies—but only for the duration of the deal. Crucially, they haven’t dropped plans to bring in new starters on worse pay and conditions.

They’ve said nothing about stopping the workplace cuts happening now, which are forcing workers to take on longer, unmanageable routes. And they want to put the fate of the hundreds of union reps and members they’ve victimised in the hands of an “independent” judge.