Next week’s planned 48-hour strike by postal workers in Burnham-On-Sea and across the UK has been blocked after Royal Mail won a High Court injunction.
Employees had been due to walk out from Thursday (October 19th) to protest against pensions, wages and jobs, as we reported here.
The strike would have been the first national walkout since Royal Mail was privatised four years ago.
Royal Mail says that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is in breach of its contractual obligation not to call for strike action until the external mediation process, which began on October 5, is exhausted.
It claims that an injunction is appropriate to prevent the deliberate inconveniencing of hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, as well as commercial loss to the company.
The union maintains it has been attempting to find a solution to the dispute for 18 months.
The CWU had balloted 110,000 members, with 89.1 per cent supporting strike action on a 73.7 per cent turnout.
