‘They don’t care’ – Striking Royal Mail worker at Birmingham picket line

A Royal Mail worker of 30 years has slammed the company over its treatment of staff. Sajid Shaikh spoke out from a picket line outside Royal Mail’s Central Delivery Office in Birmingham today, November 24.

The area distribution representative is one of thousands of postal workers who have begun a 48-hour strike in the run-up to Black Friday – one of the busiest days of the year for deliveries. Members of Communication Workers Union (CWU) voted for industrial action after pay talks with Royal Mail collapsed.

A series of strikes are also planned in December, including Christmas Eve. Royal Mail said it had made its ‘best and final offer’ during the long-running dispute, offering workers a nine per cent pay increase over 18 months.

Read more: Mum demands action on ‘mouldy flat’ after daughter, 4, taken to hospital

Royal Mail also offered to develop a new profit share scheme for employees, make Sunday working voluntary and make no compulsory redundancies before March next year.

Speaking at the Birmingham picket line, Mr Shaikh said: “The negotiations are getting worse and worse. They’ve announced 10,000 compulsory redundancies.

“What you’ve got to remember is: we’ve provided a public service for over 500 years, delivering to 32million households per day. Everybody understands as the business evolves, there is change, but change should come with an agreement.

“If you look at our board now, the majority of them have been in the business two-and-a-half years. Blokes behind me have been here 40 and I’ve been here 30. We don’t believe anything should happen without an agreement.”

Mr Shaikh questioned how Royal Mail could even consider redundancies when staff worked through the pandemic. “They called us key workers, and now this is how they’re treating us?” he said.

“And you can see now, with the cost of living crisis, every other industry is going on strike because they’re being treated the same. If we had a decent government, you’d think they’d intervene and deal with what’s going on.” Mr Shaikh added that the government doesn’t care “about working class people”.

Workers at the picket line stood next to a sign which read ‘honk if you back us’ as they lit a controlled fire to keep warm. They also waved flags with the CWU logo.

Industrial action will take place today and tomorrow with further strikes planned for December.

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