Royal Mail delivery driver Christopher Miller, one of thousands of workers on strike, said the government is not providing support.
“They need to listen to our needs but they don’t. Labour and Tories, they’re all the same,” he said, adding that he is still passionate about his job.
Postal workers are striking over pay and working conditions causing a delay in deliveries this Christmas, leaving many worried whether Christmas is cancelled. The whole service is experiencing a major backlog of undelivered post meaning many won’t have their parcels delivered on time for the special day.
Royal Mail is the UK’s most popular postal services as well as one of the oldest postal systems in the world running for over 500 years, dating back to the reign of Henry VIII.
The postal service has been accessible to the public since 1635. However in more recent times, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government passed the Postal Services Act of 2011, allowing for 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised. Despite this, the public are still heavily in favour for the public ownership of Royal Mail with 65% voting against privatisation.
Thousands of Royal Mail workers are already on strike and more are to be joining in in the week leading up to Christmas day. Workers have warned the public of a “Christmas meltdown” after Royal Mail attempted to carry out pay cuts and redundancies to which workers say management have failed to act on anger felt by the workforce.
CWU General Secretary, Dave Ward said: “Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog”.
Miller, who has been working at the postal service for 18 years, says he “loves meeting different types of people from all over the world.”
As a key worker, the pandemic was a stressful period for Miller and others.
When asked about the government’s support for key workers at the time, Miller said: “All they wanted us to do was work, work, work and now we’re hit with the cost of living crisis its like they don’t care about us. It’s all part of their plan”.
The festive period is always the busiest time of the year and now especially with the cost of living crisis, causing disruption for many lives, there is strain on all public services including transport service, the health service and many more.
The CWU recorded that 98.7% of Royal Mail workers voted for strike action with a 72.2% turnout rate and workers are aiming to achieve a pay rise that coincides with the cost of living. The RPI (Retail Price Index) rate of inflation has increased to 11.8% which is the highest recorded in nearly half a century.
Furthermore, the CWU is in dispute with Royal Mail as they announce profits of nearly £800 million while the company still pays multi millions to private shareholders. The CWU values providing employment security for all companies as well as promoting the interests and needs of their members by campaigning on fair pay, pensions, equal opportunities and health and safety through a democratic process.
Royal Mail’s CEO, Simon Thompson, is determined “to deliver Christmas” and recover the service quickly in time for the day.
Months of careful consideration and compromising with the union has led to some progress and more is being done to recognise the interests and needs of workers; a pay offer of 9% increase over 18 months has been suggested even though this will cost the company more than a million a day.
