The 2007 Royal Mail industrial disputes .
The 2007 Royal Mail industrial disputes .
The dispute centred on 'modernisation plans' which Royal Mail said were required to remain competitive, however the CWU believed that these might have led to around 40,000 job losses. [1] Additionally there were disputes surrounding flexible working hours, pay rises and pensions.
Royal Mail claimed that flexibility is vital to the business, and that it was entirely reasonable for employees normally employed in one capacity to cover other roles as required to cope with variations in the work levels in each area. The company was also adamant that increased automation (and fewer employees) were necessary to bring costs under control. The unions were accused of retaining numerous Spanish practices which prevent flexible working. [2]
The CWU accused Royal Mail of treating its employees as slaves, and regarded a level of flexibility which would have seen employees doing different jobs on a daily basis as unacceptable.
The CWU called on the government to "intervene in a positive way". Until early October, the government maintained its stance that this was a matter for Royal Mail and the union to sort out. However, in early October Gordon Brown called on the CWU to reach an agreement on the terms offered, a move that was condemned by the TUC.
Public opinion was divided, with some strongly in support of the Postal Workers, and others supporting Royal Mail and condemning the disruption caused by the strikes. [3]
Royal Mail drafted in managers from non-operational roles to attempt to keep some mail moving through the system, and offered opportunities for those CWU members who wish to work to do so at other offices to avoid conflict with striking colleagues, but the strike still had a major impact on the operation.
The 2002–2003 UK firefighter dispute was a period of nationwide strike action which began when the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) voted to strike in an attempt to secure better salaries. The FBU demanded a 39 percent increase in pay, which would have brought the average firefighter's wage to around £30,000. It balloted its members for a strike in late 2002 and the industrial action began in November. It was the first nationwide firefighters' strike in the UK since 1977. The strike was led by FBU General Secretary Andy Gilchrist.
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act. When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distributions Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is the main trade union in the United Kingdom for people working for telephone, cable, digital subscriber line (DSL) and postal delivery companies. It has 110,000 members in Royal Mail as well as more in many other communication companies.
A lockout is a work stoppage or denial of employment initiated by the management of a company during a labour dispute. In contrast to a strike, in which employees refuse to work, a lockout is initiated by employers or industry owners.
The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is a public-sector trade union representing postal workers including letter carriers, rural and suburban mail carriers, postal clerks, mail handlers and dispatchers, technicians, mechanics and electricians employed at Canada Post as well as private sector workers outside Canada Post. Currently comprising upwards of 50,000 members, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has historically been labeled as militant because of some of the actions undertaken since its inception in 1965 to help guarantee rights to all postal workers. According to former president Jean-Claude Parrot, "We succeeded to get the support of the membership because we earned our credibility with them...we got that reputation [of militancy] because we earned it."
The Grunwick dispute was a British industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill in the London suburb of Willesden, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 1978.
A wildcat strike is a strike action undertaken by unionised workers without union leadership's authorisation, support, or approval; this is sometimes termed an unofficial industrial action. The legality of wildcat strikes varies between countries and over time.
The 2009 Lindsey Oil Refinery strikes were a series of wildcat strikes that affected the energy industry in the United Kingdom in 2009. The action involved workers at around a dozen energy sites across the UK who walked out in support of other British workers at the Total's Lindsey Oil Refinery. The Lindsey Oil Refinery construction workers went on strike because employment was not offered to them on a £200 million construction contract to build a hydro desulphurisation unit at the site.
William Hayes is the former leader of the Communication Workers' Union in the United Kingdom.
The 1988 United Kingdom postal workers strike was a strike in the United Kingdom in August and September 1988. It was the country's first national postal strike for 17 years, and began after postal workers at Royal Mail walked out in protest over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East. As a result, postal deliveries throughout the United Kingdom were disrupted for several weeks.
The 2009 Royal Mail industrial disputes is an industrial dispute in the United Kingdom involving Royal Mail and members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which began in the summer of 2009. It was the country's first industrial action involving postal workers since 2007 and came about after the Communication Workers Union accused Royal Mail of refusing to enter into dialogue regarding how the implementation of modernisation plans would affect the job security of postal workers.
David (Dave) Ward is a British trade union leader and General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which was formed through the merger of the Union of Communication Workers and the National Communications Union in 1995. The CWU is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom for people working in the Postal and Telecommunications industry with over 180,000 members. Ward is a co-chair of Stand Up To Racism.
Cardiff Mail Centre is the main headquarters and sorting office for Royal Mail in Cardiff, Wales and one of the main mail centres for the southwest of the United Kingdom.
The 2022–2023 United Kingdom railway strikes are an industrial dispute in the United Kingdom. The UK has seen its largest incidence of industrial action since 1989, beginning in the second Johnson ministry and continuing through the Truss ministry and Sunak ministry. The railway strikes commenced on 21 June 2022 after members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) walked out over wages, planned changes to working practices – involving the removal of guards from trains, the reduction in the number of open ticket offices, and an increase in the age at which people could claim the young persons and senior citizen card – and the threat of redundancies. The disputes in Scotland and Wales were resolved by the RMT in December 2022, and by ASLEF in May 2023, while the dispute in England is currently ongoing as of August 2023.
A number of labour strikes, labour disputes, and other industrial actions have occurred in 2022.
The 2022 BT Group strikes were an industrial dispute between the telecommunications provider BT and members of the Communication Workers Union over pay amongst the backdrop of the UK cost of living crisis. The strike action was taken by CWU members working for BT group's communications infrastructure subsidiary Openreach alongside those employed at the company's call centres.
Since May–June 2022, a series of labour strikes and industrial disputes have occurred in various industries of the United Kingdom's economy as workers walked out over pay and conditions. The strikes took place with rising inflation, and demands for pay increases that would keep pace with this inflation.
Starting in May 2022, postal workers in the United Kingdom undertook a series of strikes and industrial disputes. They principally involved members of Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) at both Royal Mail and the Post Office. The Royal Mail strikes ended in July 2023 after workers agreed to a three-year pay deal with Royal Mail.