Postal workers across Lanarkshire will go on strike from next week as they campaign for a “dignified, proper pay rise”.
And that means there will be no deliveries or collections for four days over the next month.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents Royal Mail staff, will go on strike next Friday, August 26, followed by Wednesday August 31 and two days of action on Thursday and Friday, September 8-9.
Staff at the 11 delivery offices serving North and South Lanarkshire, will be among 115,000 staff across the country to walk out in what trade union officials describe as “the biggest strike of the summer so far”.
The strikes will figure alongside similar action by North and South Lanarkshire bin collectors, planned strikes impacting schools and early years settings and a Network Rail dispute which means only skeleton services will operate this Thursday and Saturday.
CWU members are protesting against the imposition of a two per cent pay rise, with the union noting that “inflation has soared to 11.7 per cent” and “demanding an adequate pay award that covers the current cost of living increases”.
Royal Mail say customers should expect "significant disruption” on and around strike days, with no deliveries other than “as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible”.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “Nobody takes the decision to strike lightly, but postal workers are being pushed to the brink, and they 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. "
He said that Royal Mail had made “£758m in profit, with shareholders pocketing in excess of £400m” urging bosses to "get real on pay".
Royal Mail has delivery offices in Airdrie, Coatbridge, Motherwell, Wishaw, Bellshill, Uddingston and Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire; and in South Lanarkshire locations Hamilton, Larkhall, East Kilbride and the Glasgow South-East centre near Rutherglen.
More than three quarters of union members took part in the industrial action ballot, which saw 97.6 per cent vote to strike.
Royal Mail say “a further 3.5 per cent" pay increase is available, subject to agreement on a series of changes.
They claim their business is “losing £1m a day," with the proposed pay increase adding more than £500,000 a day to that figure.
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