Royal Mail strike: 115,000 postal workers begin strike

Some 115,000 Royal Mail postal workers have walked out on strike in a dispute over pay.

It is the first of four days of industrial action, with walk-outs also taking place on 31 August as well as 8 and 9 September.

Letters will not be delivered on strike days and some parcels will be delayed, Royal Mail warned.

The union representing the workers is demanding a pay rise that more closely reflects the current rate of inflation.

Royal Mail apologised to customers and said it had contingency plans to minimise the disruption.

On strike days it will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels as possible, it said. It will also prioritise the delivery of medical prescriptions where possible.

However, it said items posted the day before a strike, during the strike or on the days after may be delayed.

The company is encouraging people to post items as early as possible to avoid disruption.

It comes as Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the strikers, had rejected a pay rise offer "worth up to 5.5%" after three months of talks.

The union has called for Royal Mail to increase wages to an amount that "covers the current cost of living".

Inflation, the rate at which prices rise, is at a 40-year high of 10.1% and expected to surpass 13% later this year.

Postal worker Hannah Carrol, who is part a strike at Whitechapel in East London, said she wanted to see wages rise in line with the growing cost of living.

"The price of everything's going up, people are having to do more and more overtime," she said.

Ms Carrol said she "couldn't believe" how much the cost of necessities such as butter was increasing and said this justified the need for higher wages.

"People are running themselves into the ground in order to feed their families and working seventy hour weeks just to make ends meet - it's ridiculous".

Businesses which use Royal Mail have also issued warnings to customers.

The card company Moonpig has advised customers to order early where possible but said its gifts and flowers use different delivery services so would be unaffected by the strikes.

The flower firm Bunches said it would send goods using DPD's next day courier service for a reduced price on strike dates.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: "Our resolve won't be broken here," in a speech to Royal Mail staff in Whitechapel. "We will fight to the bitter end if necessary".

"Let's be totally clear the company posted record profits back in April".

He said: "There can be no doubt that postal workers are completely united in their determination to secure the dignified, proper pay rise they deserve."

He added: "We can't keep on living in a country where bosses rake in billions in profit while their employees are forced to use food banks.

Royal Mail's latest adjusted operating profit for the year to March was £416m, up from £344m previously.

Chairman Keith Williams has said that the firm is losing £1m a day as parcel volumes fall and efforts to modernise the business stall.

Royal Mail's chief executive Simon Thompson told the BBC that the change needed was to pivot the business from one that was built for letters to one that focused on parcel deliveries which now represented £6 for every £10 the firm makes.

"In the last three years, we've spent £900m on our teams future by building infrastructure for parcels," he said.

"Our reality is that the Covid bubble has burst - we can see the economic situation".