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Union leaders from the communications, rail, health and education sectors have said that only fair pay and job security can end the wave of UK strike action in the bitter dispute over Royal Mail.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, which is going through a series of strikes running until Christmas, accused bosses of “goading” members and “psychologically assaulting” postal workers.
Unions will need “fair pay for our members, a fair settlement, a future in the company” that members believe in to end the dispute, he said.
Instead they faced “the most brutal attack on jobs that any group of workers in the UK has seen for decades”, Ward said. “It is also an attack on service. They want to turn Royal Mail into just another parcel courier.”
Speaking on Sky News, Ward hit out at Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson’s use of social media to “foster our members”, adding: “He’s brought in a team of union and worker busters and they’re deliberately psychologically attacking every worker. “
Royal Mail has been contacted for further comment. Thompson had previously accused CWU members of “extraordinary behaviour”, saying: “We’ve had accusations of racism, we’ve had accusations of racism, we’ve had people threatened with violence … it’s an extraordinary situation and it’s something No. We will never suffer.”
The dispute is one of a number threatening a bleak December for workers and services in Britain, with teachers, nurses and rail workers skipping pay and going on strike this month, and others in the health and education sectors also voting for action.
Downing Street has set up a dedicated unit to provide a coordinated response to waves of action that could recreate the “winter of discontent” of 1978-79, as the crisis grows. Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden has been tasked by Rishi Sunak with planning how the government responds to growing industrial unrest.
Speaking to Ward on Sky, other union representatives said they believed a settlement would eventually be reached in their sector but that pay and working conditions would have to be addressed.
Joint General Secretary of National Education Union Dr. Marie Bostad said that about 40% of teachers “are leaving the profession within 10 years due to overwork and poor pay”.
Deputy Chair of the British Medical Association Dr. Emma Brunswick said unions wanted to help tackle the crisis in the NHS, but added that health workers’ pay had fallen by a quarter in real terms in recent years.
RMT senior assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey said the tone had changed since the appointment of the new transport secretary, Mark Harper, who met the union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, last week and said he wanted to help facilitate a deal. . But Dempsey added that negotiations had dragged on for months and on more than one occasion the rug had been “pulled from under our feet”.
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