UK telecom, postal workers join renewed strikes

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON, UK (AA) - Thousands of workers in the UK’s postal and telecommunications industry have renewed strikes by staging a walkout and calling for higher pay rises amid an escalating cost of living crisis.

On Wednesday, 115,000 Royal Mail workers joined a renewed strike that began last week while 40,000 telecom workers from BT and Openreach continued industrial action that began on Aug 30.

"The reason for the strike is simple: workers will not accept a massive deterioration in their living standards," said Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), as quoted by the BBC.

As well as representing postal workers, the CWU also represents telecom workers from BT and Openreach and has argued that the two telecom giants have failed in offering their worker a pay raise that matches rising inflation.

“The dispute, which involves more than 40,000 CWU members working for BT and Openreach, was triggered by BT’s unilateral imposition of real-terms pay cuts for all CWU-represented grades (workers),” the union said in a statement.

On Friday, postal workers launched this year’s biggest strike with staff across the UK staging a mass walkout in response to Royal Mail’s offer of a 2% pay rise. The industrial action has disrupted the delivery of packages and letters. However, much of the public have been largely supportive of the action.

Staff at Royal Mail are planning more strikes in the coming months, with industrial action scheduled for Sept. 8-9.

August has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of strikes taking place by workers from the transport, healthcare, legal, and postal industries over inadequate pay raises.

The industrial action is taking place amid the ever-growing cost of living crisis, which last week saw energy bills skyrocket to £3,549 ($4,169) a month.