Royal Mail workers are living in a 1970s dream world

After several sweeteners, the company has made a “best and final” pay rise offer of 9pc over 18 months, a proposal that the CWU has predictably rejected, on the basis that it represents “a devastating blow” to the livelihood of its 115,000 members.

In reality, it is nothing of the sort: it stands to be more generous than the average private sector salary hike, if predictions of an average 5pc increase for this year are correct, and even more so than the 3.5pc annual increase that public sector employees are tipped to receive. 

And what the CWU conveniently forgets to acknowledge every time it issues another of its bellicose communiques is that Royal Mail posties already earn on average 40pc more than their counterparts.

The union hasn’t only rejected the company’s pay offer, but it has responded with a counter-proposal that sounds like it was written in a parallel universe: inflation-matching pay,  reduced working hours, and lighter duties for anyone over the age of 55, as if someone in their mid-fifties is ready for a retirement home.

None of this is a surprise from a trade union whose power extends to having a say over which employees get the highly sought after shorter, less hilly routes.

Still, it doesn’t make such demands any more credible. 

The CWU’s pay proposal alone would cost more than £1bn a year at a company that has already suffered a £200m hit from 18 days of strike action, and is expected to post a £224m loss next year, £100m worse than previous forecasts. 

Surely, at this stage, members must be asking themselves whether the CWU is properly serving their interests, or putting its own first?

Perhaps the ultimate test is this: with Royal Mail at risk of being driven off a cliff, will union bosses try to pull it back from the precipice? 

Or will they nudge the company over the edge and give themselves a pat on the back as it crashes into the ground?