Postal strike to affect Royal Mail deliveries and collection across the country

The strike which began last Friday will see around 20,000 postal workers participate and cause disruption to postal collection and delivery.

Postal deliveries are expected to be delayed as a consequence of the strike; this could potentially affect the GCSE exam results being delivered by post. Business collection across the regions where the strike is taking place will also be affected.

London alone is expected to have 700 staff participating in the walkout today, while Birmingham, Coventry, Midlands, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Cambridge and Northampton will see the postal service disrupted due to the strike.

Bristol will be one of the most affected in today’s postal strike as 800 of the postal staff participate in the industrial action from 9am onwards.

Friday will see around 4,500 postal workers participating in the strike in London, Edinburgh and New port. London will be particularly hit hard with 3,500 workers walking out across the division mail centres, Edinburgh will witness 900 drivers and mail centre workers participate in the strike.

On Saturday around 7,800 Royal Mail workers will walk out with 7,500 staff from London delivery offices participating. The strike is expected to affect deliveries in London until the following Tuesday.

The CWU launched a latest attack against Royal Mail branding its business approach as “chaos management”. The union is striking against the pay, job cuts and working conditions.

Deputy General Secretary of the CWU Dave Ward who heads the postal division of the union said, "Postal workers are working harder than ever and in return are facing attacks and harassment under Royal Mail's chaos approach to management.

"While Royal Mail claims mail volumes have dropped by 10 per cent they also claim that they have cut 40,000 jobs which means our members are working 20 per cent harder and handling more mail. "

On September the union will call for a national ballot for strike action. This could see 130,000 postal workers participate in a nationwide strike that could bring the nation’s postal service to a halt.