CWU general secretary warns "we could be looking at longer strikes"

The second day of the latest wave of postal strikes has begun with both sides set to resume talks later today.

Officials from the Communication Workers Union will meet Royal Mail managers in a bid to prevent further walkouts next week.

Nearly 44,000 CWU members took part in the strike action on Thursday and more will be held on Friday and Saturday. The three-day walkout follows two 24-hour stoppages last week.

The union and Royal Mail failed to reach an agreement earlier this week despite three days of talks hosted by the Trades Union Congress.

The CWU general secretary, Billy Hayes, has warned that there could be further action beyond the current strikes.

Hayes said: "We will be upping the dispute. We will not be scaling it down.

"There is every prospect that we will increase the action and we could be looking at longer strikes.

His union is planning to take legal action over Royal Mail's move to hire 30,000 agency workers to clear the backlog of mail caused by the postal strikes.

Royal Mail has denied that its action breached employment law and has said that the backlog should be cleared by early next week.

Post your comment

Please note: you will need to login or register before you can comment on the website