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Royal Mail postal workers from all over the country, including Swindon, will be going on strike.
Residents have been warned to expect disruption to their post, with the company saying it will have to prioritise certain packages during the course of the strike action.
Around 115,000 postal workers have been called out for four days of action– Friday, August 26 and Wednesday, August 31 and then Thursday and Friday, September 8 and 9.
This follows 97.6 per cent of Communications Workers Union (CWU) members voting ‘yes’ to industrial action on a pay strike ballot in July.
Swindon has a Mail Centre in Dorcan and a delivery office in Westmead. There’s also a delivery office in Royal Wootton Bassett.
It is not clear how many members of staff at these locations will be striking, but messages have been posted into local community groups by members of staff warning of disruption.
“Back in 2007 and 2009, our reps had to spread themselves across the D.O. picket lines, because we had so many units without reps – but now, from all units, we’re getting volunteers to be picket supervisors,” said South West assistant regional secretary for CWU Ian Trehearne.
“Those were big strikes with good turnouts, but this time I feel there’s more confidence among the membership – and all reports have been really positive all the way from Lands End to Worcester.”
Ian added that when he heard the callout his first reaction was: “It’s about time – Royal Mail have been really pushing their luck over the recent period and members have become massively p****d off, especially after they worked so hard all through the pandemic.
“We can win. We will win – we’ve got to win.”
An employee from Royal Mail who wishes to remain anonymous spoke to The Adver about some of the issues they had with the company outside of the pay dispute.
“Their total ignorance not to recruit has put more pressure on their employees to perform their duties in smaller time spans, which is appalling.
“The revision of offices did not help as that put even more pressure on the employees to perform their duties adequately and safely.
“The visions of the hierarchy are predominantly on tracked items and parcels, that is their ultimate goal, they don’t care about ‘joe public’, if they did, then we would not be in this mess.
“As a postman, you build up a bond with people on your round, over time they are like family, they treat you like family, that’s what this organisation was built on, true loyalty. But unfortunately, that has been taken away by privatisation, profit, shareholders, greed and generally not caring about no one but themselves.”
Royal Mail has confirmed that it is putting measures in place, but will struggle to deal with the loss of rok force on strike days.
A spokesperson said: “Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but they cannot fully replace the daily efforts of its frontline workforce. We’ll be working to keep services running, but you should expect significant disruption on strike days. Please post items as early as possible in advance of the strike dates. Items posted the day before, during, or in the days after any strike will be subject to delay.
“On strike days, we’ll deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels as possible and prioritise COVID test kits and medical prescription items. We will not be delivering letters, except for Special Delivery letter items. Delivery Offices and Customer Service Points will be closed, please do not try to collect from or drop off items on strike day dates.”
