Royal Mail strike dates 2022: when CMU members are striking

Postal workers walked out on Thursday (20 October) in the first of 18 days of strikes taking place from October to December, including the busy pre-Christmas period which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Strike action will continue on several days in the coming weeks, following on from previous walkouts in August, September and early October. Royal Mail has warned that service could be disrupted and said it is doing “all we can to minimise any delays”.

The walkouts follow a recent ballot for strike action which saw around 115,000 of CWU members vote to take action to fight for a “dignified, proper pay rise”.

The CWU has given formal notification for national strike action on 25 October, with the strikes affecting members who collect, sort, distribute and deliver parcels and letters across the UK.

Royal Mail said it will be doing what it can to keep services running, but the strike is likely to cause some disruption.

The CWU also plans to call on members who collect, sort, distribute and deliver parcels and letters to take strike action over three days from 2 November up to and including 4 November.

The planned strikes on these dates involve CWU members in different areas of Royal Mail, with each area taking strike action on different days. This means most services will only be affected on one or two of the days during the planned days of strike action that week.

The full list of strike dates in October, November and December is as follows:

Workers who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters:

Processing, distribution, international, collection and admin:

Royal Mail has said on days when national strike action is taking place it will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible, and prioritise the delivery of Covid test kits and medical prescriptions.

The postal service will not be delivering letters on these days, with the exception of Special Delivery.

It is recommended that people post items as early as possible in advance of the strike dates, but collections will be less frequent on days when strike action is taking place.

The CMU is striking over a long-running dispute over pay and conditions and has accused the postal service of planning structural change, which would effectively see employees in secure, well-paid jobs turned into a “casualised, financially precarious workforce overnight”.

The union said plans include delaying the arrival of post to members of the public by three hours, cuts in workers’ sick pay and inferior terms for new employees.

The CWU accused Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson of side-stepping talks aimed at avoiding strike action and said in recent weeks, relations between worker and employer have deteriorated, with Royal Mail serving legal notice that it was withdrawing from existing agreements with the union, as well as threatening to cut 10,000 jobs following strike action last week.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “Instead of sitting down and sorting out his problems like an adult, Simon Thompson chose to be a vanishing act instead.

“When someone like him earns £62,750 a month and can give himself six-figure bonuses, it is a disgrace that he sees it fit to disrespect our members in such a way.

“Simon can’t dodge the reality that a mood of rebellion is sweeping postal workers who won’t accept Thompson’s hostile and bizarre behaviour.

“Postal workers go above and beyond every day and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We won’t be backing down until we get just that.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “On Friday, 14 October, we announced losses of £219 million in the first half of the year. This once again demonstrates the urgent need for Royal Mail to change.

“Further strike action would materially increase our losses for the full year and may necessitate further operational restructuring and job losses.

“Four weeks have passed since we invited the CWU to enter talks with Acas to resolve the change and pay dispute.

“We once again urge the CWU to join us in Acas talks. This is the only way to reach a resolution and secure Royal Mail’s future and jobs for 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.”

Royal Mail said the CWU’s statement on Simon Thompson’s salary was incorrect, pointing out the correct figure was £525,000.