Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Post Office workers to stage latest walk-out

Post Thumbnail

Workers in the country’s biggest Post Offices will stage a fresh strike today in a bitter row over jobs, pay and branch closures.

Members of the Communication Workers Union at hundreds of Crown offices will walk out for the day, the fourth round of industrial action in recent weeks.

The union is opposed to plans to franchise 70 of the branches and close some others, saying hundreds of jobs will be affected.

The dispute also involves pay, with the CWU saying its members have not received a wage rise for over two years.

The Post Office say the Crown offices – the larger branches usually sited on high streets – are losing £40 million a year and has accused the union of refusing to accept economic realities.

But the union said it believes the company is trying to meet Government targets by “drastic” cost-cutting.

Picket lines will be mounted outside offices across the UK today, with the union expecting strong support for the walkout.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “This Government promised no programme of post office closures, but these plans would cut 20% of the Crown network. This is under a minister – Jo Swinson – who campaigned against franchising before getting a government position.

“The pay offer is nothing like what the Post Office is trying to make out. It’s conditional on accepting 76 Crown Post Office closures and over 800 job losses. The second and third lump sums are dependent on unachievable targets so are very unlikely to ever get paid. Even if they are paid, they would be significantly less than the publicised figure because many workers are part-time and hundreds would have lost their jobs.

“The Post Office and Government are ignoring the wishes and views of people who work in the Crown network and the customers who value these post offices. Staff voted by nine to one in favour of strike action – a resounding rejection of the company’s plans on closures and pay – yet they are being ignored.

“Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions in communities across the country opposing the closure and franchise plans. These are valued services which handle significant amounts of work.

“We firmly believe that a solution could be found if the Post Office was prepared to sit down and negotiate a meaningful and mutually agreeable solution. Ploughing on and further angering their staff and customers is no good for anyone.”