Royal Mail employees in Glasgow began a 19-day strike over an ongoing pay and conditions dispute on Thursday, October 13. The 24-hour strike will be followed by 18 more dates between now and Christmas.
After Royal Mail enforced a 2% pay rise as inflation in the UK approached 10% in July, postal workers overwhelmingly supported strike action in protest of pay and working conditions.
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Following a letter from CEO Simon Thompson to the CWU on September 22 in which he "threatened" to withdraw from several existing national agreements, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which is leading the strike, claimed that the situation has "worsened" due to "public provocation" from senior leaders at the 500-year-old former state postal monopoly.
Executives from Royal Mail have recently reaffirmed that the company is losing around £1 million every day and that the strike action threatens both the company’s long term viability and jobs. They claim that the union’s plan will make it harder for the company to compete with other businesses.
After talks between the two parties broke down in September, CWU members went on a 48-hour strike that disrupted post deliveries across the nation. This led to more industrial action by the trade union in the weeks that followed.
Here is all the information you need to know about the strike action, which will go for 19 days across the UK.
How long is the Royal Mail strike and what are the dates?
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The strike kicks off on Thursday, October 19, with a national action by all union members across the country. Workers involved in the strike are those in the network and national distribution, parcel and letter processing and distribution, international parcel and letter services, collections, parcel and letter deliveries.
Full dates are listed below:
October 13 to October 14 (Pay)
24-hour strike from 4am
October 20 to October 21 (Change)
24-hour strike from 4am
October 25 to October 26 (Change)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 2 to November 3 (All Network)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 3 to November 4 (All Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 4 to November 5 (All deliveries)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 8 to November 9 (All Network)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 10 to November 11 (All deliveries)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 14 to November 15 (All Network)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 15 to November 16 (All Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 16 to November 17 (All Deliveries)
24-hour strike from 4am
Black Friday week
November 23 to November 24 (All Network)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 24 to November 25 (All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 25 to November 26 (All Deliveries)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 28 to November 29 (Everyone)
24-hour strike from 4am
November 30 to December 1 (All Network)
24-hour strike from 4am
December 1 to December 2 (All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC)
24-hour strike from 4am
December 2 to December 3 (All Deliveries)
24-hour strike from 4am
What to do if the service in your area is affected by the Royal Mail strike?
Royal Mail said they will provide further detailed information about their contingency plans, services affected and our advice to customers in the event they receive formal notification for any or all of these potential strike dates.
On days when strike action is taking place, Royal Mail said they will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible, prioritise the delivery of COVID test kits and medical prescriptions wherever possible. However, they will not be delivering letters (with the exception of Special Delivery),
Members of the public are then advised to post their items as early as possible in advance of the strike dates and continue to post the items at Post Boxes or Post Offices but collections will be less frequent on days when strike action is taking place.