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A Cambridge postal worker has spoken out against what he calls the “manic” conditions imposed on workers of Royal Mail in Cambridgeshire. Alex Cook, 40, who has been working at Royal Mail’s sorting office in Cambridge for more than a year, has said that his work schedule is “manic”, and there was a point at the beginning of 2022 where it felt like “Christmas every day”.
Alex, who lives in Newmarket, has described the sorting office in Cambridge as “huge” but also “understaffed”, claiming that it feels as though there’s room for another fifteen people to join the company. Alex joined the strikes which were held on August 26 and 31, along with 115,000 other Royal Mail staff taking part in strike action.
Letters will not be delivered on strike days and the Royal Mail will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible. Communication Workers Union (CWU) has demanded a pay rise that more closely matches inflation, which is currently more than 10 per cent.
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Royal Mail employs more than 140,000 staff, including managers, and has so far offered workers a two per cent pay rise backdated to April. A huge percentage voted in favour of strikes, with 97.6 per cent of CWU participating in the ballot which voted to take industrial action over pay.
Alex said that the decision to participate in strike action was a “hugely difficult” decision, and “detrimental” to himself and family – he has a baby daughter to support – and striking will mean he loses his pay package. He also said it was “not good” that the public will not be able to receive birthday cards and important documents on strike days.
He said: “I’ve never been part of an industrial dispute before but this is necessary. Management is stoking the flames and they seem to be enjoying it, the company is encouraging employees to air their concerns but not paying any attention to them”.
The Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the strikers, rejected a pay rise offer worth up to 5.5 per cent after three months of talks. However, Alex has said the offer does not go far enough as Royal Mail has demanded workers accept “a raft of changes” and new terms and conditions around sick pay, overtime and shift patterns.
Alex added: “The negotiated offer that we have had come back that no one in their right mind would sign up to. It’s annoying because management has been ratcheting up the rhetoric and whipping up the workforce, there wasn’t much effort to come up with a different offer”.
However, a Royal Mail representative said that the CWU have not responded to the company’s invitation to talk about pay. They said: “[CWU] has created red herrings on the Universal Service, renationalisation and shareholder activity. The CWU is deflecting to avoid talking about the changes we need to make as a business”.
Whilst Alex accepts Royal Mail has been losing money, he does not think it’s right to penalise workers to ensure the company is profitable: “I would suggest the lack of profits is a failure of management after the pandemic. You need to invest in people and processes to ensure the right things are happening, this clearly hasn’t happened, and we shouldn’t have to pay for this.
“I think if Royal Mail were a Cooperative model like John Lewis it would be far more successful. It’s a heritage brand, and there is a huge demand for post still”.
A Royal Mail spokesperson responded to the issues Alex raised, saying: “The CWU’s self-centred actions with the wider trade union movement is putting jobs at risk, and making pay rises less affordable.
“We are losing £1 million a day and the CWU’s strike action is making our situation worse. We want to protect well-paid, permanent jobs long-term and retain our place as the industry leader on pay, terms and conditions. Each strike day makes that more difficult, making Royal Mail’s future more uncertain than at any time in its long history.
“The CWU has failed to respond to our latest invitation to meet to discuss change and pay, instead creating red herrings on the Universal Service, renationalisation and shareholder activity. The CWU is deflecting to avoid talking about the changes we need to make as a business.
“On the CWU’s first strike day, more than 850 offices were operational as we worked to minimise customer disruption and keep people, businesses and the country connected. Over the Bank Holiday weekend, teams across Royal Mail have worked tirelessly to implement our recovery plans, ensuring NHS letters and critical government mailings were prioritised as we cleared the mail to return to normal service levels.
“We need the same commitment from the CWU’s leadership to engage on change, this is the only way we can unlock more pay. Our future is as a parcels business. We must adapt old ways of working designed for letters to a world increasingly dominated by parcels and act fast. We cannot cling to outdated working practices, ignoring technological advancements and pretending that Covid has not significantly changed what the public wants from Royal Mail.
“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience the CWU’s strike action will cause. We remain ready to talk with the CWU to try and avert damaging industrial action and prevent significant inconvenience for customers. But any talks must be about both change and pay.
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