Postal workers in Lichfield have walked out as part of a national industrial action.
Around 115,000 Royal Mail staff across the country are on strike today (26th August) in a dispute over pay.
The Communication Workers Union has demanded salaries to reflect the current cost of living.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said households would be disrupted as a result.
“We’re really sorry for the disruption that this strike action is likely to cause to you.
“We want to reassure you we will do everything we can to minimise disruption and get our services back to normal as quickly as possible.”
Royal Mail spokesperson
Further industrial action is planned by the union on 31st August and 8th and 9th September.
So that’s another day of their cars parked in side roads and on pavements
Plus the increased noise as they encourage drivers to blast their horns
Have a nice day protecting
Unfortunately iam not able to as iam local resident
Not hopeful. The rail workers have so far not succeeded in fact it has cost them money!!
Good luck to all our posties. Mine is amazing
Fully support the posties. Their employers make big profits but do not pay workers enough. Yes it means disruption but they have good reason.
This is just the beginning. So many people on strike now.
People won’t be forced into poverty without putting up a fight.
This Government needs to sort itself out fast.
I see civil unrest on the
horizon.
Unfortunately the Posties are being treated appallingly and this is their only way to defend their jobs and our service. If we lived in a better society this would be resolved with negotiation.
Fully support the posties and hope they win all of their demands, and I’ll keep supporting them all the way. One day of slight inconvenience is an incredibly small price to pay to help critical workers get decent pay and conditions.
Royal Mail made £726m in profit from a service that should never have been sold off to private profiteers. They have more than enough to pay posties fairly. If they can’t, put in back in public hands to be run for public good, not greed.
If you’re annoyed by some car horns for a few hours then I’d suggest your anger is misdirected. Like a lot of hard working people, their pay isn’t good enough and they’re struggling to get by. Maybe try being annoyed by that instead?
As for their cars being parked on public roads where they have every right to park, they are just trying to get to work. There’s no where else to park close by. I live opposite the sorting office and take great pleasure in binning the nasty notes left on their windscreens by some local residents who seem to think they are entitled to tell people what to do.
Good luck posties, I hope you get a decent result.
Well done posties – it’s time to say “Enough is enough”
Support the national day of action on 1st October and sign up to Don’t Pay UK. We can only bring about the civilised, caring country we could be if we all stand together
I don’t want a private equity firm asset stripping the Royal Mail and I want the workers to have their full rights and decent pay.
Just for the fed up resident I’ll go back a bit later and honk again.
If the govt continues to ignore the trouble this country is in, largely caused by themselves, we will risk seeing civil unrest and I don’t want that.
General Election required.
I must be the only person opposed to this! Why should postal workers be allowed to strike (or train workers for that matter). If you are not happy with the level of re-imbursement you are getting for the work you are doing then get off your backside and look for another job rather than trying to disrupt our economy! There should be a handful of protected professions (Nurses, Teachers, Emergency Services etc) as these are true vocations. But working in the postal service is a job not a vocation, so leave if your not happy!
These workers are valued members of our communities, and they deserve fair pay and conditions, just the same as so many other hardworking people who are being hit by this government’s failure to act on the cost of living crisis and the greed of fat cat bosses. The decision to strike can’t have been an easy one – it is a sad reflection of the sorry state this country is in under this incompetent government, with a widening gap between rich and poor. Britain can do better than this.
I am a pensioner, can l strike for more pay? No l can’t, so l just get on with it. Unions want to bankrupt the country.
Kitty
If you went back later you missed out by 11.30am they had packed in for the day and all their, cars some of which were parked in a dangerous manner and obstructing footpaths had gone.
Half a job posties ?
The sun was shining so off to their quite garden I suppose
Snag is no one is happy with bills rising and lack of money let’s all go on strike ? People wouldn’t be supportive of petrol staff on strike or even Morrisons staff ? It’s blackmail and nothing more I don’t strike ? I’ve never joined a union in 40 years of working ? Get on with it as mentioned you’ll bankrupt the country !!!
The problem is if they get a pay rise, the price of all stamps and postage will have go up to pay for the increase, no one will be able to afford it, so the post person will end up losing their jobs, same as train drivers, if no one can afford to travel on the trains.
#SK, “get off your backside”. Really!? Last time I looked my postie was off their backside out walking and carrying a heavy bag delivering mail in all weather often going above and beyond their duties helping people in the community.
# Margaret. Unions are not trying to bankrupt the country that would be counter-productive. Everyone has the right to a wage they can live on without having to resort to benefits or food banks and good working conditions and when these are not met and negotiations are failing then their only recourse is to strike. A decision to strike is not taken lightly by any group of workers, who have a right to do so. And if this causes some disruption for a short period of time then so be it.
# Fed up resident. And if a few honking horns and badly parked cars is your only problem, aren’t you the lucky one.
The multi-rich trying go get even richer = entrepreneurship
Working people trying to maintain their standard of living = selfish
There is merit for the government in high inflation. It stimulates those with savings on low interest rates to spend their capital to mitigate its loss of value.
The leap frog of wages and costs benefits few. Especially those on fixed incomes. The basic state pension is £141.85 per week (about £7,100 per year) The minimum wage for those over 23 is £9.50 per hour (approximately £20,000 a year for a forty hour week). So much for rich pensioners!
We have had a prolonged period of austerity and suppressed wage increases. There is always a rebound. Some might have short term gains, most will not.
Margaret Rogers – Can you name a single country where organised labour has led to a country defaulting? This erroneous statement is straight from the pages of tax-avoiding, foreign resident newspapers. You know, the ones that love the country so much they don’t live here.
Your complaint seems to be that other people hav power to increase their income but you don’t.
The Royal Mail staff need to stop parking on the burton old road east area. Local people haven’t got anywhere to park! The streets aren’t a Royal Mail free for all parking!
SK working on your idea there would be no post and no train drivers what then. Better for a few days strike than no workers. Just out of curiosity have you any idea how long it takes to drive a train
Why don’t the posties stop moaning and get on with what they are paid to do. If they don’t like it get another job
What we are seeing in most sectors is the result of privatisation and exploitation. Unions are vital at this time. Everything is failing due to the pillage by the Conservative government. UK owns nothing now – all gone or going same route to foreign ownership. No wonder posties and rail workers are striking. They are not only underpaid – having not seen any pay increases for years – but have seen contracts in favour of management but not workers. The only route that workers have to protest, is striking. The government is responsible for the sewage scandal, having sold off the water companies to foreign ownership. Railways the same – we pay more for everything as a result. Highest rail fares, for inefficient services. There is no investment because the privatised companies cream off all profits for their shareholders and CEOs. It will be the same for the Royal Mail. They make massive profits, but refuse to reward the workers who we all depend upon. Who on earth thinks that postal workers are less necessary than NHS, rail workers etc? The unions are not the problem at all – it’s the government, silly! The government that cares so little they deliver a Brexit that cannot possibly work. They knew that it was going to cause chaos. And the MPs and ministers have profited. They want you all to pay for your huge energy bills but MPs can claim their energy bills for one of their properties. They reward themselves with 11% and 8% pay rises, whilst suggesting workers must simply manage. As prices rise (largely as a result of Brexit and privatisation) we must put on woolly sweaters and turn down our heating. Postal workers work hard for their living. MPs do not. Most of them. It is time for people to realise that the government and every single Tory MP has ruined our lives. Sewage in Lake Windermere , our waters – think of the health risks. Fish have been poisoned by it. The Conservative government has been in power for most of the last 100 years. They have the workers where they want them – poorer – unable to survive due to poor pay. People need to understand that every public service has been sold off for profit. Apparently the UK is the only country in the world to privatise its water! France is rightly angry because the pollution affects the French coast. The issue of pay and the reason for the strikes is a direct result of a dreadful political party (UKip/ BNP that the Tories absorbed). But it goes back years. So don’t expect Liz Truss to change anything or solve anything. This is the government of disaster capitalists. They are going to remove the right to protest as they remove UK from the ECHR. Human rights are about to be removed. So that the government can carry out its dirty business without complaints. 1984. The government of falsity. The government is to blame for every ill that has befallen the UK since 2016 and before. If you are a member of the Conservative party you are complicit with the tragedy of the UK. Our once prosperous (up to 2016) country is now ruled by a bunch of right wing numbnuts. They are after our human, workers, environmental and other rights. Lichfield is a Conservative city. We all ought to be up in arms about the shameful poverty inflicted by a heartless government. More people voted for other political parties than voted for the Conservatives in 2019. Yet our system gives 100% power to the Tories. Which is why there is no meaningful opposition. The government can quite literally do anything that the European Research Group (Truss and her friends) wants. Against our better interests. The culture wars are very useful to the Tory government. They want division. If you are not on the side of the valuable posties, teachers, NHS workers – you probably aren’t thinking straight. The only thing that will get the government to do anything is rebellion. The workers are right. The government are wealthy parasites. No other European country is being fleeced to the degree UK people are.
Fed Up Resident! & others living in Lichfield upset at your posties.
Our apologies for only 7hours on the picket line: 5am – 12pm
We will endeavour to do better so thank you for your concern on us being an “half a job postie” – your support is evident in what you think of us.
How dare people fight to pay the bills & feed their families – I guess more of us should rely on those food banks working class find themselves using more so than ever before.
While Burton Road East residents in their beautiful home’s look down on us and treated us with disdain & denigrate yesterday, and I’m told today also sadly. I cannot agree that our behaviour, for the first time EVER – drivers honking horns for several hours in support while we stood on the grass should be so appalling to you?
To everyone of the amazing local residents of Lichfield who brought us cakes, biscuits & donuts with kind words of support – all Lichfield posties Thank You.
Thank you to the local Labour Party, notably Dave Robertson for support and taking the time to talk to many of us on our struggles, not only involving work.
Not 1 person got paid yesterday – not one of us wanted to strike.
So to those swearing at us or telling us to work harder, residents complaining and putting abuse notes on our cars – we connect with the community daily. This is not just a “job” we love what we do – if you carnt respect us then please allow us those few hours to demonstrate?
We have no where else to park within a mile of the office while at work until 2pm now yellow lines are all around the industrial estate at Brittannia. It’s not a choice but a necessity. We don’t intentionally want to upset you by parking on your road.
We are not just facing real term pay cuts but plans to rewrite our very jobs and when customers receive mail.
There is so much more so please spare a few minutes to watch https://youtu.be/YWyCsImj0Cc
If you support us then please, it means a lot – tell your postie.
If you don’t – We absolutely apologise for inconvenience caused to everyone affected including the local residents we upset for a few hours while on the picket line.
Increase in the price of stamps because workers want a living wage?
The boss at Manchester Airport Group had a pay rise of 25% to £2.5m.
Entirely coincidentally, Manchester Airport increases prices for drivers: five minutes to drop off travellers for £5 (up from £3 in 2019),
Only the low-paid cause inflation.
Increase in costs across Europe
France 4%
Germany 23%
Italy 77%
Rest of Europe 41%
The UK 215%
Says it all really and maybe this as something to do with the industrial unrest now taking place.
Don’t worry, Boris Johnson has promised us a ‘Golden future ‘ thanks to the foundations he has laid, according to the Daily Express, must be true!
When the fat cats at the top appreciate the hard work the posties do, then there will be progress. It’s exploitation. Lining there pockets with huge bonuses.
The people complaining need to remember about the Covid kits that were delivered to them during the pandemic.
The postal service is taken for granted.
People need to remember they were frontline staff putting there lives in danger during Covid when others were either being paid to sit on there bums or were paid to work from home. The posties had no choice. Touching your doors, interacting with you guys. Sometimes the postie is the only person that some of you see all day.
Please support there cause.
Again this morning! Car horns going why don’t you do us all a favour and go back to work! Don’t know why you all think you are so special to demand a pay rise.
Solidarity with the striking CWU workers ✊
I am completely behind the posties. They do lots more than deliver letters and parcels. My 84 year old Gran had a parking ticket once at Queens hospital,
wrongly issued. She just happened to mention it to her postman and was obviously upset as she wasn’t very computer literate. Without asking, the postman emailed the company and got it cancelled. Little things like this mean an awful lot to many and the posties, I believe, are an integral part of communities and society. I for one will be showing my support.