Royal Mail national postal strike to go ahead

In total 61,623 out of 80,830 members who voted decided to support a national strike.

Localised strikes have been taking place across the country since June as the CWU has been engaged in battle with Royal Mail over its implementation of its modernisation plan.

The CWU claims that Royal Mail has been forcing through changes without considering the interests or views of workers. Royal Mail has said it needs to make the changes due to a 10 per cent annual decline in mail volumes.

The CWU, which claims the decline in mail volumes is more like seven per cent, will be able to launch a national strike after giving seven days notice.

Before today’s announcement the CWU and Royal Mail were engaged in three days of talks aimed at averting a strike but to no avail.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said, "This is a huge vote of no confidence in Royal Mail management. The company has tried to make out that problems only exist in some local offices, but postal workers across the UK have now spoken and they say no to Royal Mail's arrogance."

"There's still an opportunity to reach an agreement before any national strike action takes place. "We need a national agreement which secures a fair deal on modernisation and reward for the efforts of postal workers in transforming the business. We want reassurances on job security, covering both redundancies and full-time part-time ratios."