"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.
"When Royal Mail bosses are raking in £758 million in profit and shareholders pocketing £400 million, our members won't accept pleads of poverty from the company.”
CWU deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger said: “Our members know full well what they are worth.
"They are willing to fight for a no-strings, real-terms pay rise that they are fully entitled to.”
But Royal Mail’s operations director claimed the CWU “failed to engage in any meaningful discussion on the changes we need to modernise”.
Ricky McAulay said: “The CWU rejected our offer worth up to 5.5 per cent for CWU grade colleagues, the biggest increase we have offered for many years. In a business that is currently losing £1 million a day, we can only fund this offer by agreeing the changes that will pay for it,” he explained.
“Royal Mail can have a bright future, but we can’t achieve that by living in the past. By modernising we can offer more of what our customers want at a price they are willing to pay, all whilst protecting jobs on the best terms and conditions in our industry.
“We apologise to our customers for the disruption that CWU’s industrial action will cause. We are ready to talk further with CWU to try and avert damaging industrial action but, as we have consistently said, it must be about both change and pay.”
Customers are advised to post items as early as possible prior to the planned strikes. It warned that collections “will be less frequent” on strike days and advised people to check online for updates.
Royal Mail said on days when strike action is taking place, it will “deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible”, prioritise the delivery of Covid-19 test kits and medical prescriptions “wherever possible”, and suspend the delivery of letters, with the exception of Special Delivery.
