CWU Announce next Strike Dates

Royal Mail Group: Pay and Change Disputes – Programme of Strike Action

Branches are advised that following an all-day Postal Executive meeting, along with a consultative meeting of our Senior Field Officials, the following programme of strike action has been endorsed and is being announced to our members.

The programme of action below is specifically designed as a serious statement of intent with the clear purpose of bringing Royal Mail Group to the bargaining table to negotiate a resolution to both disputes.
It should also be noted that only last Thursday 22nd September, Royal Mail Group served notice on the Union to cease a number of major agreements, including legal protections, which was extremely provocative.

October – National Action – all Members Across all Functions

  •  24 hours from 04:00 Thursday 13th October into Friday 14th October (Pay)
  •  24 hours from 04:00 Thursday 20th October into Friday 21st October (Change)
  •  24 hours from 04:00 from Tuesday 25th October into Wednesday 26th October (Change)
    November – Functional Action (with the Exception of a Single Day’s National Action)
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Wednesday 2nd November into Thursday 3rd November = All Network
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Thursday 3rd November into Friday 4th November = All Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Friday 4th November into Saturday 5th November = All Deliveries
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Tuesday 8th November into Wednesday 9th November = All Network
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Wednesday 9th November into Thursday 10th November = Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC
  •  24 hours from 04:00 on Thursday 10th November into Friday 11th November = All Deliveries
  •  24 hours from 04:00 Monday 14th November into Thursday 15th November = All Network
     24 hours from 04:00 Tuesday 15th November into Wednesday 16th November = Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC
  •  24 hours from 04:00 Wednesday 16th November into Thursday 17th November = All Deliveries.

Black Friday week

  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Wednesday 23rd November into Thursday 24th November = All Network
  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Thursday 24th November into Friday 25th November = All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC
  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Friday 25th November into Saturday 26th November = All Deliveries
  • 24 hours all out on Cyber Monday 28th November into Tuesday 29th November = Everyone
  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Wednesday 30th November into Thursday 1st December = All Network
  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Thursday 1st December into Friday 2nd December = All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC
  • 24 hours from 04:00 on Friday 2nd December into Saturday 3rd December = All Deliveries.

Parcelforce, Fleet and Engineers will be aligned to the most appropriate functional dates following consultation between the Officers and the Senior Reps.


The Postal Executive is certain that all members will understand this is a serious
escalation of the dispute and this decision has not been taken lightly. However, Royal Mail Group has steadfastly refused to enter into meaningful negotiations for many months now and they have imposed an insulting 2% pay increase. Aligned to this is the recent removal of all key protections and safeguards for our members. As a consequence, the Postal Executive felt there was a need for a very strong programme of action to be announced.


We would like to thank our members for their continued loyalty and support which ultimately will bring about a settlement to these disputes