Postal workers and university staff in Bristol will go on strike over pay and conditions tomorrow and Friday. Postal workers are expected to hold 46 picket lines across the Bristol region and University staff at both Bristol University and UWE will be out on strike this week.
UCU and Unison members will be taking part in a joint three-day strike, with the first two days being this week and the third day on November 30, with a total of 70,000 UCU members from 150 universities across the UK withdrawing their labour. In the Bristol region alone 3,500 CWU members will be taking industrial action in a 48-hour strike involving 115,000 postal workers across the UK.
CWU members working for Royal Mail in Bristol, Bath and Taunton will be commencing the first of two 48-hour strikes to coincide with Black Friday at 4am November 24. CWU Branch Secretary, Ben Watts told Bristol Live that he hopes the union can reach an agreement with Royal Mail soon as otherwise it would mean the strikes would continue into Christmas.
READ MORE: Bristol postal workers say they are given ‘scraps’ of company's £758m profits
CWU members from Bristol and District Amal voted for no confidence in the Royal Mail Group CEO, Simon Thompson at a gate meeting yesterday (November 22). They are disputing the current offer of a below inflation pay rise of 3.5 per cent, moves towards a five-day service and changes to delivery times that will pave the way for compulsory redundancies, among other company proposals.
If Royal Mail fails to meet the union’s demands, further strikes will take place throughout December right up to Christmas Eve. In addition to the industrial action set to start tomorrow morning, a further 48-hour strike will take place next week (November 30 and December 1) to coincide with the Black Friday deliveries for online purchases.
CWU Bristol District and Amal Branch Secretary, Ben Watts said: “Black Friday is obviously a huge time for Royal Mail but unfortunately we’re taking strike action. We’ve been in talks with Acas for the best part of two weeks.
“We are prepared to reach an agreement but if not then we need to go on strike to protect terms and conditions and get a decent pay award for our members. There has been some progress made so we are hoping that the talks will work.
“They are not thinking about the customers and they are not thinking about the staff. They would like to do away with the am deliveries altogether when our competitors are delivering at 7 in the morning.
“If they reduced the service to five days it would mean up to 30,000 people could lose their jobs. It’s not because they want a better service, it is because they want to save money on people.
“Our members now have taken eight days which is a substantial amount of money and these are people who don’t earn huge amounts of money. There’s a cost of living crisis going on, it’s Christmas, a lot of our members have families so its a really tough time.
“We had to put on these dates to make sure Royal Mail know that we are fully committed to reach an agreement. Our number one priority is to reach an agreement, hopefully before Thursday.”
University of Bristol University and Colleges Union (UCU) members will be on strike for three days in November to fight back against pension cuts, unfair pay, and working conditions, joined on two of those days by striking Unison colleagues. This strike is a response to gender and BAME pay gaps, unfair contracts, overwork, falling wages, and pension cuts.
University pay fell by 20 per cent in real terms between 2009 and 2021, and will fall much faster in the coming years due to the dramatic increase in inflation. One third of staff working in universities are on fixed-term contracts that give little financial security.
UCU members also voted in a separate ballot to go on strike as part of the ongoing dispute between UCU and university employers over pensions. Staff are demanding that employers restore our pension benefits, instead of slashing their contributions.
University of Bristol UCU branch president, Dr Jamie Melrose, said: ‘Strike action is a last resort, but universities’ continued collective refusal to address these issues has meant UCU members at Bristol and across the UK are prepared to take strike action to get employers to come back to the negotiating table. We are delighted that students – the National Union of Students and students here at Bristol – back our strike action. And that we will be striking alongside University of Bristol Unison”
A spokesperson from Royal Mail Group said: "The CWU has formally notified Royal Mail they plan to call on their members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters to take national strike action on Thursday 24, Friday 25 and Wednesday 30 November and Thursday 1 December 2022. Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but we cannot fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce.
"We’ll be doing what we can to keep services running, but we are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption." For more information please see Royal Mail's statement regarding the strikes on their website.
In regards to the latest strikes, Bristol University has released a statement. It reads: "The University participates in a national bargaining arrangement to agree the annual pay award and is obliged to act in accordance with the scheme. We argued for a larger increment this year, but it was clear that most institutions considered this unaffordable.
"However, with our union colleagues, we have made progress on issues like closing the gender pay gap and reducing casualisation in our workforce. We will also continue to support national negotiations to bring this issue to resolution.
"We are one of 340 organisations that are part of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), so any changes would need to be agreed by USS and the Pensions Regulator. For Bristol, every 1 per cent additional contribution to the scheme would cost around £1.5m.
"We continue to protect staff benefits by working with our Staff Pension Working Group and the local UCU branch to advocate keeping cost increases to an absolute minimum, and only where necessary."
In a separate statement, a spokesperson from UWE said: "We are disappointed that this industrial action is taking place and we regret the potential disruption this will cause, but we respect the right of our colleagues to undertake this action. We are working hard to mitigate any potential disruption for our students and staff across these three days.
"Please note that the University’s graduation ceremonies at Bristol cathedral 21-25 November are still going ahead as normal. UWE Bristol will continue to work with UCU, Unison and other unions to support students and staff."
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