CWU respond to Royal Mail request to delay strikes until 2020

We have seen the CWU respond strongly to Royal Mail’s letter offering negotiation with no pre-conditions in exchange for a promise not to call posties out on strike before Christmas. The CWU don’t seem particularly enamoured with the offer, claiming the deal had previously been offered but Royal Mail decided to wait for the mediators report first.

The CWU claim that Royal Mail have rejected recommendations from the report with the CWU claiming that this make it impossible for talks to resolve the issue.

That the mediator’s report is now out means that the last two steps of the mediation process are now underway:

• If either party is unable to accept the mediators recommendations then a further 2 week period is prescribed for further negotiations. The disagreeing party is expected to advise the reasons for rejecting the recommendations and their alternative suggestions.
• If by this stage agreement hasn’t been met then the parties will write to each other to notify of their intentions. It is at this point that the CWU could notify Royal Mail of their lawful intention to call for strikes.

We can be pretty certain that if the two sides don’t come to an agreement in the next few days and weeks that the CWU will move forward with their ballot mandate and call for strike action, potentially as soon as over the Black Friday period and then in the run up to Christmas.

“Royal Mail Group’s position in this dispute is born out of dogma and raised on deceit. Today’s press release is a total sham designed to undermine the CWU and any prospect of an agreement.

The ‘significant step’ they refer to was actually proposed by the CWU on the 8th October 2019. That offer was to move immediately from mediation to formal negotiations with the proposal that the CWU would not give any notice to take industrial action for effectively six weeks, at which point we would reflect on the genuine nature of the negotiations.

RMG rejected that offer in preference to wait for the external Mediator’s report. They refused to meet all last week and only offered a 4 hour slot this week.

Their letter referred to in their press release was emailed late yesterday after 17.00hrs and was the subject of a press release before we met today. Ask yourself, is this the actions of people trying to resolve this dispute? Equally today they have rejected significant recommendations from the external Mediator’s report making it impossible for talks to resolve all issues.

We will consult with the CWU Executive tomorrow and determine our response.”
– Terry Pullinger, Deputy General Secretary (Postal), CWU