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Strikes by Royal Mail workers will go ahead in the days before Christmas after their union said the company had turned down an offer of negotiations to resolve a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said its members will walk out on Friday 23 and Saturday 24.
“An offer extended to the company to suspend the strikes and establish a period of calm from now until 16 January 2023, as well as the union and the company both signing a joint statement incorporating Royal Mail’s latest promise of no compulsory redundancies, was rejected almost immediately,” said the union.
Further to the update this afternoon, we can confirm that within hours of receiving our letter, Royal Mail Group have rejected our attempt to resolve the dispute.
The strikes planned for 23/24 December will go ahead.
We remain available for further talks facilitated by ACAS
— The CWU (@CWUnews) December 20, 2022
The strikes will be the 17th and 18th days of action in the increasingly bitter dispute.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “For Royal Mail Group to reject our offer just hours after receiving it demonstrates that they were never serious about saving Christmas for customers and businesses.
“When a company openly boasts of having built a £1.7 billion fund to crush its own workers rather than use that money to settle the dispute and restore the service, then you know dark forces are clearly at work.
“Their sole intention is to destroy the jobs of postal workers and remove their union from the workplace.
“Our members will not stand for this, and further action will take place in 2023.
“Our message to the public and businesses is that postal workers do not want to be here, but they are facing an aggressive, reckless and out-of-control chief executive committed to wrecking their livelihoods.”
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Throughout December, we have urged the CWU to call off their strike action and work together to deliver Christmas for our customers.
“The CWU have consistently refused our offer to do so, choosing instead to repackage old pay offers, absent of the change needed to fund the pay deal, in the misleading guise of new proposals to resolve the pay and change dispute.
“Our priority is to deliver for our customers, and this has never been more important as we approach Christmas.
“We would like to thank the increasing number of posties returning to work each strike day. They have been joined by thousands of employees from across the business who have swapped their regular day jobs to work in the operation as we focus all our efforts on delivering Christmas for our customers.”
