Royal Mail has claimed that a national postal strike at Christmas is unlikely and that there would definitely be no walkouts around Black Friday, the new pre-festive season internet shopping and e-commerce delivery bonanza at the end of November.
Royal Mail says that while postal workers represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have voted in favour of strike action, the union is legally bound to what could be a drawn-out mediation process.
The company says that with no start set to that process and the need for the CWU under trade union laws to give two weeks’ notice of a strike, the union would not have enough time before Black Friday to organise industrial action. Officials say the time expected to set up a