Elgin Post Office picketed by striking CWU mail workers
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WORKERS picketed the entrances of Elgin's Royal Mail delivery office today (Wednesday, August 31), as part of the national postal workers strike.
The strike over a pay dispute, by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), saw Royal Mail workers, including posties, mechanics and sorting office workers, take to the streets of Elgin with flags and banners.
Today's strike action was part of a running campaign of industrial action, which saw prior action on Friday, August 26 and further strikes planned for September 8 and 9.
The CWU's 56 members in Elgin all took part in the strike on Friday, August 26 and offices in Lossie, Elgin, Forres and Fochabers were also picketed.
The dispute is over a pay offer which Royal Mail says "equates to a five per cent pay rise."
Local CWU communications officer Roz White rejected the companies position.
She said: "It is not a five per cent offer at all, it is a two per cent rise imposed without any sort of negotiation, arbitration or anything else.
"Last year, Royal Mail made £758 million in profit and gave £400 million to their shareholders.
"Royal Mail has two CEOs and a finance officer and those three people, who are imposing this two per cent rise, took over £2 million in bonuses alone.
"This is just completely unfair and totally unacceptable.
"Royal Mail posties worked all through the Pandemic and literally put their lives on the line with every house we went to."
In an update on industrial action before the start of the strikes, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We’re really sorry for the disruption that this strike action is likely to cause to you.
"We want to reassure you we will do everything we can to minimise disruption and get our services back to normal as quickly as possible.
"Royal Mail believes there are no grounds for industrial action.
"Royal Mail is ready to talk further with the CWU to try to avert damaging industrial action but it must be about both change and pay."
Elgin workers picketed the entrances of the delivery office on both South Street and the A96 between the Dr Gray's and High Street roundabouts.
The pay dispute is not the only point of friction between the CWU and Royal Mail leadership, as a separate dispute over terms and conditions is ongoing.
On pay issues, 97.6 per cent of CWU members voted for industrial action whilst, on terms and conditions, the vote in favour of action was 98.7 per cent.
Some Elgin locals showed support for the picketing workers on Friday, August 26, with dozens of cars on the busy A96 honking their horns.
Workers on the picket line were also gifted packs of biscuits, bought specially by members of the public.
Ms White voiced "regret" over the disruption to postal services caused by the strikes, which Royal Mail say could affect the entire range of postal services, with letters not being delivered at all on strike days.
She said: "We do appreciate that there will be disruption, that's what strikes do.
"The union only last week offered to reopen talks with the CEO and senior members of the Royal Mail board – and unfortunately that offer was declined.
"The management is not even trying to stop the disruption on their side. All we are asking for is to be treated fairly.
"We have no other recourse but to do this and, while we regret the disruption caused, the strikes are scheduled so there will be plenty of normal service between them.
"We are trying to make the point to management that their offer is unacceptable while trying to minimise the disruption to our actual customers."
Further CWU strike action will disrupt postal services on September 8 and 9.
