Fat cat bosses holding workers to ransom? Yes, you can understand why the Communication Workers Union is screaming blue murder. Royal Mail’s threat of 10,000 job losses is one way to harden minds during an industrial dispute over pay and working practices.
But the CWU’s leaders would be wise to reflect on a few financial realities. First, Royal Mail is definitely in a deep and deepening financial hole. It has been bizarre in recent weeks to hear Dave Ward, the general secretary of the union, question Royal Mail’s claim to be losing £1m a day. Quoted companies do not pluck numbers out of thin air in their stock market statements, or not usually. In fact, Friday’s statement showed the position to be even worse: the six-month loss was £219m.
