Why are postal workers on strike?
The issues behind this dispute will strike a chord with millions of workers in Britain. They are about defending public services, about pay, job losses, terms and conditions, and the future of the company pension scheme. Bosses are offering a 6.7 percent pay increase over two years which equals about 3.3 percent per year. That the offer is above Gordon Brown’s 2 percent pay ceiling for public sector workers is testimony to the effectiveness of the strike action that the postal workers’ CWU union has taken so far. But the rise is still well below inflation. In return for it Royal Mail is demanding the removal of everything that currently makes the job tolerable. It aims at ultimately rendering the union powerless to resist management’s diktats.
