The Latest On Royal Mail Postal Strike 2023

1 March 2023 9 minute read

9 minute read

We’re following the latest news about the Royal Mail postal strikes to keep you updated. Here’s what we know currently:

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Published 1 March 2023

Further postal strikes planned

The Royal Mail website has confirmed that CWU members have voted to take further industrial action.

Currently, the CWU has yet to announce further strike action to take place.

We will keep this page updated with further information as soon as it becomes available.

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Published 7 February 2023

Postal strike called off after legal challenge from Royal Mail

The Royal Mail website has announced that the CWU has cancelled their planned strike action for February 16th and 17th.

The CWU claims there was an error in their strike notification.

We will keep this page updated as soon as we have new information about future postal strikes.

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Published 5th February 2023

An update on postal strikes in February

The CWU has announced a postal strike for 16th and 17th February 2023.

Royal Mail workers who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters will stage a 24-hour postal strike from 12.30pm on 16 February until 12.30pm on 17 February 2023.

Therefore, this will likely impact collections and processing on Thursday and deliveries on Friday.

Read the latest Royal Mail news.

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Published 4 January 2023

Are there any more postal strikes?

Following the postal strikes in December, we’re keeping a close eye on any potential postal strikes in January.

To answer the question, ‘when are the next postal strikes?’, there are no strike dates planned for January 2023.

However, the CWU has warned, “further action will take place in 2023”. Members are expected to ballot on the prospect of new strikes which will affect Royal Mail services.

We will continue to keep this page updated with any confirmed Royal Mail strikes in 2023.

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Published 10 December 2022

The CWU has formally notified Royal Mail that postal workers plan to take further national strike action on the 23rd and 24th December 2022.

Royal Mail has warned that disruption is likely.

Read the latest Royal Mail news.

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Published 5 December 2022

In light of the planned industrial action by the CWU, Royal Mail has brought forward the latest recommended posting dates for UK and International services before the festive season.

2nd Class / 2nd Class Signed For Royal Mail 48 – 12 December 2022
1st Class / 1st Class Signed For / Royal Mail 24 / Tracked 48 – 16 December 2022
Royal Mail Tracked 24 – 19th December 2022
Special Delivery Guaranteed – 21 December 2022

Read more information and the latest international posting dates.

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Published 23 November 2022

Royal Mail workers are due to strike on six days in the lead-up to Christmas, including Christmas Eve, which is reportedly one of the busiest days of the year for them.

The dates are set for 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 23rd, and 24th December.

This is in addition to the four days already announced for late November and early December, which will impact the Black Friday shopping weekend.

Keep up to date with the latest news from Royal Mail.

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Published 10th November 2022

The CWU has announced it is withdrawing planned national strike action on 12 and 14 November 2022.

The CWU has announced that it will be calling on members to take strike action on 24th, 25th, and 30th November, and 1st December 2022.

These dates are still to be formally confirmed, but the CWU has to provide 14 days’ notice before it can strike.

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Published 1 November 2022

Despite calling off strikes for this week, the CWU has announced two dates in November for postal strikes.

Royal Mail postal strikes will be held on Saturday, 12th and Monday, 14 November 2022.

On these dates, Royal Mail will aim to operate the same contingency and recovery plans as in previous national strike action.

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Published 30th October 2022

Royal Mail has confirmed the CWU has withdrawn the industrial action planned for this week. This means that Royal Mail workers who are members of the CWU will no longer be taking strike action on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th of November 2022.

The announcement, made on the Royal Mail website on 30 October, also confirmed that strikes planned for 8, 9, and 10 November 2022 would be withdrawn.

For Datagraphic clients, this means we expect mail collections and deliveries to continue as normal, with no industrial action disrupting mail services.

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Published 25th October 2022

Early November Royal Mail postal strikes

CWU members of Royal Mail’s workforce will strike over three days in early November. The dates are Wednesday, 2nd November, Thursday, 3rd November, and Friday, 4 November 2022.

At Datagraphic, we will continue to operate as normal during these dates. Based on the available information, we expect mail collections to continue from our site on all three strike days.

Disruption is, however, likely to affect mail deliveries in the coming days as strike action continues and the network catches up.

Unfortunately, we have no control over this strike action. But we will update clients on any changes to our services should we receive more details from Royal Mail.

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Published 10 October 2022

Proposed CWU strike action dates

National action:

Thursday 13th October
Thursday 20th October
Tuesday 25th October
Monday 28th November

Functional action (parts of Royal Mail operations only):

Network: 2nd, 8th, 14th, 23rd, 30th November
Processing, area distribution, international, collections, admin, MDEC: 3rd, 9th, 15th, 24th November and 1st December
Deliveries: 4th, 10th, 16th, 25th November and 2nd December

Read Royal Mail’s latest news.

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Published 21 September 2022

We promised to keep you updated about the dates of the Royal Mail strikes.

The latest CWU strike information is that the postal strikes will proceed as planned on 30 September and 3 October.

Will the post be delivered between strike days?

According to Royal Mail, items posted the day before, during or in the days after the strike action will be affected by delays.

There will, however, be an increase in network capacity and additional resources to help get services back to normal.

Collections from business customers, Post Offices, and post boxes will resume after the strikes are finished. Deliveries will also resume after the industrial action, including accelerating NHS and healthcare letters, as well as critical Government mailings.

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Published 9th September 2022

Royal Mail postal strike called off following the Queen’s passing

CWU, the union representing Royal Mail postal workers, has cancelled the strike action planned for today, Friday, 9 September 2022, following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, Thursday, 8 September 2022. The strike cancellation is a mark of respect to her and her family.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said,

“Following the very sad news of the passing of the Queen, and out of respect for her service to the country and her family, the union has decided to call off tomorrow’s planned strike action.”

Has the post already been affected by the strike?

115,000 Royal Mail workers began a 48-hour strike on Thursday, 8 September, causing disruption to postal services across the UK.

CWU has cancelled the second day of the planned strike. However, Royal Mail expects significant disruption to occur. It apologises for the inconvenience caused.

What dates is Royal Mail going on strike?

CWU members have proposed new dates for industrial action.

There are planned postal strikes on 30 September and 1 October 2022.

We will keep you updated on Royal Mail strikes as soon as we receive new information. Keep checking this page for the latest on the postal strikes.

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Published 30 August 2022

On Friday, 26 August, 115,000 postal workers began the first of four days of postal strikes following a ballot to take industrial action.

The next postal strike is planned for Wednesday, 31 August 2022.

During this time, Datagraphic will operate as normal and minimise disruption by continuing to work with DSA provider, Whistl. Whistl will process and collect customer mail, delivering it to the Royal Mail regional distribution centre, ready for delivery when postal services resume.

We apologise for any disruption caused to our clients, but unfortunately, Royal Mail operations are beyond our control.

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Published 10 August 2022

On 9 August 2022, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents Royal Mail Group workers, announced strike action for four dates in August and September.

Why are Royal Mail postal workers striking?

Postal workers are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay in what is described as the summer’s biggest strike so far.

The news follows the CWU’s ballot for strike action, which saw members vote by 97.6% on a 77% turnout to take action for a “dignified, proper pay rise”. The workers have rejected the offer of a 2% pay rise.

This latest announcement comes only weeks after another union, Unite, communicated that 2,400 Royal Mail managers from its membership would no longer take strike action between July 20th and 22nd. This followed a ballot which saw a majority in favour of returning to negotiations.

A spokesperson for the union said, “In an economic climate where inflation looks set to soar to 18% by January 2023, the imposition will lead to a dramatic reduction in workers’ living standards”.

When are the Royal Mail postal strikes?

Unfortunately, we anticipate national disruption to Royal Mail services following the CWU’s official confirmation that Royal Mail workers will strike. Disruption and service delays may be experienced during and immediately following these strike action dates.

Friday 26th August
Wednesday 31st August
Thursday 8th September
Friday 9th September

What will happen to postal deliveries?

In response to the CWU strike action announcement, Royal Mail released a Service During Industrial Action update commenting that:

‘We’re really sorry for the disruption that this strike action is likely to cause to you. We want to reassure you will do everything we can to minimise disruption and get our services back to normal as quickly as possible.

Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but they cannot fully replace the daily efforts of its frontline workforce. We will be doing what we can to keep services running, but customers should expect significant disruption.’

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said,

“Nobody takes the decision to strike lightly, but postal workers are being pushed to the brink.”

Will I be affected by the postal strikes?

Despite the CWU stating that the strike will be national, there is currently no official update on where in the network the impact will be. Once Royal Mail shares more details about the exact impact, Datagraphic will share details of our contingency actions with our clients.

In the meantime, the following links offer more information regarding the Royal Mail strike:

We will continue to monitor this situation closely, and should any further developments affect clients, we’ll make direct contact with you.

Tips to minimise the impact of postal strikes

Prepare in advance. We will keep this page updated with any news relating to planned industrial action affecting postal services. Stay informed by bookmarking and checking this page for upcoming announcements.
Maximise time in preparing mailings. We understand that it’s not always possible to send mailings earlier, especially if they are time-sensitive. However, a third-party hybrid mail provider like Datagraphic can help free up internal staff to prepare mail quickly or take advantage of same-day printing and despatch to get ahead of the September strikes.

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The integrated multichannel communications platform is quick to set-up, secure, GDPR compliant and easy to use. Aceni Hybrid Mail handles all the documents you typically print and mail manually. Upload your data and documents from any location, and we’ll print and mail them.

Datagraphic prints and mails your post on the same working day, so you don’t need extra internal staff or resources to prepare mailings and get ahead of planned disruptions caused by postal strikes.

We also pre-sort mail on-site and work with a Downstream Access (DSA) provider who collects our mail and delivers it to the Royal Mail Inward Mail Centres, even on strike days. This means the mail you send through our Aceni Hybrid Mail service is already in the postal system for delivery when Royal Mail delivery services resume.

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