Royal Mail workers in Burnham-On-Sea have held a 48-hour strike in an ongoing national dispute over pay and conditions.
The Burnham-On-Sea postal staff joined around 115,000 other members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) across the UK in walking out on Friday 30th September and Saturday 1st October, as pictured here.
More than 20 members of staff joined a picket line outside the sorting office in Burnham’s Dunstan Road.
Additional strikes are planned nationwide on Thursday 13th October, Thursday 20th October, Tuesday 25th October and Monday 28th November.
Further dates have also been announced by the CWU for functional strike action which will impact parts of the post operation as follows: Processing, Distribution, International, Collections, Admin: 3, 9, 15, 24 November and 1 December 2022; Delivery: 4, 10, 16, 25 November and 2 December 2022; and Network: 2, 8, 14, 23, 30 November 2022.
One local postman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We’re grateful to have received lots of positive local feedback and thank residents for their understanding and support.”
The Communication Workers Union general secretary Dave Ward says: “There can be no doubt that postal workers are completely united in their determination to secure the dignified, proper pay rise they deserve.”
“We can’t keep on living in a country where bosses rake in billions in profit while their employees are forced to use food banks.”
“When Royal Mail bosses are raking in £758m in profit and shareholders pocketing in excess of £400m, our members won’t accept pleads of poverty from the company.”
“Postal workers won’t meekly accept their living standards being hammered by greedy business leaders who are completely out of touch with modern Britain. They are sick of corporate failure getting rewarded again and again.”
“Royal Mail’s leadership have lost the dressing room – and unless they make efforts to get real on discussing a pay rise that postal workers deserve, serious disruption will continue.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson responds: “The CWU’s decision to announce further strike action is placing jobs at risk. Royal Mail is losing £1m a day. Strike action has weakened our financial position and is threatening the long-term job security of our postmen and women.”
“The CWU has a responsibility to recognise the reality of the situation Royal Mail faces as a business and to engage urgently on the changes required. We are now a parcels business. We must adapt old ways of working designed for letters to a world increasingly dominated by parcels and act fast.”
“We want to protect well-paid, permanent jobs long-term and retain our place as the industry leader on pay, terms and conditions. The CWU rejected our offer worth up to 5.5% for CWU grade colleagues, the biggest increase we have offered for many years.”
“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience the continued strike action will cause. We are doing all we can to minimise any delays and keep people, businesses and the country connected.”
