The Communication Workers Union in the Royal Mail throughout the North has begun strike action today over its failure to give a pay rise that matches the rate of inflation.
Royal Mail is a private postal delivery company and its workers are facing an inflation rate of over 12.3%. Management decided to unilaterally cut workers’ pay by 10% by imposing a nominal useless and insulting 2% increase.
These workers deliver the post all year round. Royal Mail should stop giving the bosses massive bonuses and pay their workers properly.
The postal workers are setting an example for all workers throughout Ireland.
In the South, public sector unions sought a review of the last pay agreement back in March because it gave such a miserly increase.
Yet nothing has been done until now. The government did not even respond to the unions until May and the ICTU is only conducting a strike ballot in September.
We need an all-Ireland push for higher wages to match inflation and the CWU strike is a sign of what needs to be done.