Post Office staff to strike over cuts next week

Post Office workers will go on strike next Thursday in a dispute over cuts to jobs, services and pensions.

The Communication Workers Union said the Post Office was pursuing a programme of cuts that would see 2,000 job losses and staff being left tens of thousands of pounds worse off in retirement, as well as the privatisation of its flagship branches.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “We are making a simple demand. The government needs to pause the cuts, convene a summit of key stakeholders in the industry and work out a strategy that gives employees and the public confidence that the Post Office has a future.”

“The Post Office has pointed to the bottom line in making these cuts. But it cannot pretend that using public money to pay off staff so they can be replaced with minimum wage jobs is a success story or that closing down its flagship branches is a defence of the service.”

Ward said the Post Office needed a serious plan to grow revenues in areas like financial services, pointing out that other countries have brought in successful “Post Banks”.

“The Post Office is offering staff thousands of pounds not to go on strike and is threatening to make CWU reps redundant. It is incredible that a publicly owned company is behaving this way and the government has got to make clear that this is completely unacceptable.”