‘We have no choice’: why the strike at Royal Mail is no cookie-cutter pay row
In a summer when picket lines have become a familiar sight, the casual observer could be forgiven for mistaking Friday’s strike at Royal Mail as a cookie-cutter pay dispute. In fact, the strike, the first of four, represents the culmination of years of simmering tensions between executives and its main union. If Royal Mail’s board takes the nuclear option, it could result in the break up of a 500-year-old postal service still struggling to find its feet nearly a decade after privatisation.
The corporate drama intensified on Thursday when the government said it would step in to review the billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s stake in the company. The investor, known as the Czech Sphinx owing to his inscrutable public persona, hopes to raise his Vesa Equity Investment’s shareholding in Royal Mail from 22% to above 25%, sparking speculation he may launch a full takeover bid.
The union dispute provides a pugnacious backdrop for the shareholder manoeuvres. In the red (and yellow) corner is Royal Mail’s non-executive chair who says his clashes with unions while running British Airways readied him for a role he has held since 2019. In the opposite corner is the Communication Workers Union, self-described as the “strongest union in the UK”. With an unassuming presence, casually dressed in light brown slacks and trainers, Williams cuts an unlikely figure for a board room union-buster. But he does not mince his words. His message to the company’s 115,000 employees is simple: “Without modernisation we die.”
Royal Mail employees began 24 hours of strike action at 4am on Friday, and will strike again on Wednesday, before further action on 8-9 September. It has been estimated the four days of strikes will cost Royal Mail £100m, with each day
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