(Reuters) – Britain’s postal workers could extend their Christmas strikes as Royal Mail’s main union rejected the company’s latest pay offer on Wednesday.
The company that delivers mail and parcels said in its ‘best and last’ offer it would raise wages by up to 9% over 18 months instead of the previously planned two years, urging workers to give up the strike.
However, the CWU (“Communication Workers Union”) said strikes planned for Thanksgiving and Black Friday would go ahead if negotiations failed.
“We are disappointed that instead of finding a compromise to avoid major disruption, Royal Mail has chosen to pursue such an aggressive strategy,” CWU chief executive Dave Ward said in a statement.
“We will not allow 115,000 Royal Mail workers to take such a devastating blow to their livelihoods,” he added.
The union had organized several strike days over the past few months and made plans for another 10 days of work stoppage between November 24 and December 24.
The stock of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services, was down 4.5% at 13:49 GMT.
(Report Yadarisa Shabong, Pushkala Aripaka and Aby Jose Koilparambil, French version Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)
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