Huge strike in Britain: 115 thousand postal workers are protesting their working conditions

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Postal workers in the United Kingdom began striking yesterday (Fri) following a labor dispute over their wages and terms of employment at the former government monopoly – Royal Mail. This is the largest strike of the summer, and the largest in the country since 2009.

According to CNBC, in the first of four strikes planned for the coming weeks, 115,000 workers at 1,500 sites left their jobs, and it is added to a series of labor disputes emerging in the country, while experiencing a historic crisis surrounding the cost of living.

Thus, the lawyers from the Public Defender’s Office voted this week in favor of a strike that will begin on September 5 – the day when the identity of the new Prime Minister who will replace Boris Johnson will be announced – and will continue until further notice. This is due to salary cuts that they suffered as part of changes made by the government to the legal aid system in the country. At the same time, there are extensive strikes by the railway workers in the country, which caused the services to stop at various times during the summer.

Postal workers, members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), voted by a majority of 98.7% in favor of going on strike, and are expected to strike on August 31st, and September 8th and 9th.

Royal Mail said it had offered the CWU a 5.5% pay rise, citing the company’s precarious financial situation as a key reason why it was unable to update pay in line with the rate of inflation. She also stated that she was currently losing a million pounds a day, and that the union’s demands would cost her more than a billion pounds a year. The company said that the strikes brought it to “the most uncertain period in its 500 years of existence.”

“Our future is as a package delivery business. We have to change old work methods, which are intended for letters, and we have to act quickly,” according to the company. She claimed that the union opposes the change, and that its vision for the company “will create a cruel spiral of declining volumes, rising prices and losses and layoffs.” The CWU claims for its part that the company did not offer a 5.5% wage increase, but raised the workers’ wages by 2% on its own accord.

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