Postal workers reject national strike

In September 2003, employees of the UK's Royal Mail belonging to the Communication Workers’ Union voted against a national postal strike over pay, but London postal workers supported industrial action in pursuit of improved London weighting allowances.

On 17 September 2003, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) announced that its members in the Royal Mail had voted against taking industrial action in a dispute about pay and conditions. Contrary to the expectations of most observers, Royal Mail employees voted not to strike by 48,038 votes to 46,391, a majority of 1,647. The outcome of the ballot averted what would have been the first national postal strike since 1996, and was widely seen as a rebuff for the CWU’s left-wing leadership.

The union had sought an 8% pay rise from October 2003. In August, talks at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) broke down after CWU negotiators rejected a offer by the Royal Mail of pay increases reportedly worth 14.5% over 18 months, arguing that too much of the package depended on productivity improvements and restructuring involving the loss of thousands of jobs. Royal Mail management insisted that they could not afford to increase the offer and said that the talks had been suspended.

In a statement, the union said that whilst the outcome of the ballot was 'disappointing news', the Royal Mail 'cannot view a less than 1% majority as a mandate for massive job losses across the industry. There is no agreed process to deal with major change in the industry but the union remains committed to reaching a national settlement with Royal Mail which deals with all aspects of the challenges that face the industry and our members.'

However the Royal Mail welcomed the 'common sense result' of the ballot, and now appears to be in a position to press ahead with its controversial modernisation strategy which involves ending the second daily postal delivery and cutting a total of 30,000 jobs, 16,000 of which have gone already.

The union blamed the result on members’ worries over job security and Royal Mail 'propaganda'. The Royal Mail’s top management - chair Allan Leighton and chief executive Adam Crozier - had been hired by the government from the private sector to turn round the ailing postal business, reported to have lost GBP 750,000 a day during the last financial year. Breaking with traditional industrial relations practice in the public sector, management had appealed to the workforce over the heads of union leaders by launching a high-profile campaign to dissuade them from striking. According to senior management, a strike would have been 'commercial suicide' at a time when the Royal Mail faces growing competition from rival postal operators now entering the industry.

However, a separate ballot of CWU members in London resulted in a three to one vote in favour of industrial action in pursuit of increases in London weighting allowances. On 1 October, the union staged a 24-hour stoppage in London, disrupting postal deliveries not only in the capital but also in other parts of the country and generating a substantial backlog of mail. The CWU wants all staff in London to receive GBP 4,000 London weighting. The Royal Mail has offered to increase the inner London allowance by GBP 300 to GBP 3,784 and the outer London allowance by GBP 300 to GBP 2,667. The union is now considering further London strikes.