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Christmas post is set to be severely disrupted as Royal Mail strikes are confirmed to go ahead on December 23 and 24.
The union representing postal workers said that senior leadership at Royal Mail Group ‘have rejected an offer of negotiations to resolve the ongoing dispute’.
They said they had offered to suspend the strikes and ‘establish a period of calm’ from now until January 16.
They said the offer to make a joint statement incorporating Royal Mail’s latest promise of no compulsory redundancies ‘was rejected almost immediately’.
There have already been 16 days of strikes in an increasingly bitter dispute, and look set to end any hopes of huge amounts of Christmas post being delivered in the period.
CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: ‘For Royal Mail Group to reject our offer just hours after receiving it demonstrates that they were never serious about saving Christmas for customers and businesses.
‘When a company openly boasts of having built a £1.7 billion fund to crush its own workers rather than use that money to settle the dispute and restore the service, then you know dark forces are clearly at work.
‘Their sole intention is to destroy the jobs of postal workers and remove their union from the workplace.
‘Our members will not stand for this, and further action will take place in 2023.
‘Our message to the public and businesses is that postal workers do not want to be here, but they are facing an aggressive, reckless and out-of-control CEO committed to wrecking their livelihoods.’
Royal Mail previously warned that the last post dates for mail to arrive before Christmas were around a week earlier this year due to strike action.
It’s now too late to send Christmas cards with either a first or second class stamp and be confident they will arrive.
The last date for second class was December 12 and the last date for first class was December 16, while the last date for tracked 24 was yesterday. Items sent Special Delivery Guaranteed can still be sent tomorrow.
Royal Mail said: ‘Following several months of talks between Royal Mail and Communication Workers Union, including ACAS facilitation, Royal Mail has shared a best and final offer for pay and change.
‘The revised offer includes extensive improvements that have been made during the negotiations with the CWU, including an enhanced pay deal of 9% over 18 months and a number of other concessions to terms and agreements. The offer is subject to agreeing a programme of change with the CWU.
‘We’re urging CWU leadership to accept the change and pay offer, call off future damaging strike action, for the good of our customers and our people.
‘We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience the CWU’s continued strike action will cause. We are doing all we can to minimise delays and keep people, businesses and the country connected.’
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