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Friday marks the first of four days of stoppages by 115,000 postal workers.
For the Communication Workers Union it is a dispute about pay. The union has rejected a 5.5% offer from management and insisted that its members must be protected from the ravages of inflation.
On first look that does not seem an unreasonable demand, given that Royal Mail made a £758 million profit last year.
But bosses say that was a freak result massively boosted by Covid-era deliveries of testing kits and online shopping at a time when most stores were shut.
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They say the dispute is all about the future of the business at a time when letters appear to be in long-term terminal decline and all the growth is in parcels.
Management led by former BA boss Keith Williams points out the letters business is already losing £1 million a day and every extra percentage point added to the pay award will increase that deficit by £650,000.
They insist that without fundamental reform, which could include scrapping Saturday deliveries under the Universal Service Obligation, the already loss-making Royal Mail letters operation does not have a viable future.
For the moment neither side seems to have any appetite for compromise.
For the union the pay offer represents a massive and unacceptable blow to their members’ living standards. For management this is a historic moment when Royal Mail has to adapt or have no prospect of sustainability.
The stakes are high. Workers have already voted overwhelmingly for a second wave of strikes later in the autumn.
We are going to have to get used to seeing a lot less of our posties over the coming months.
