Royal Mail: huge turnout and overwhelming majority vote for strike

Royal Mail workers deliver a massive mandate for strike action in historic CWU ballot, reports Shabbir Lakha

Members of the Communications Workers Union have voted overwhelmingly for strike action. 97.1% voted for industrial action on a 75.9% turnout. This is a historic result that has shown the appetite among workers to fight back against privatisation and deteriorating working conditions.

The mandate from this ballot, which could lead to the first national postal strike in a decade, is also a kick in the teeth to the Tories whose Trade Union Act has made balloting for strike action incredibly difficult and reduced the ability of unions to effectively organise workers.

This result should be a boost to all other unions and workers in all industries that it is possible. The CWU ran a dynamic and rank-and-file-run campaign and utilised social media as well as on-the-ground campaigning which had an impact in getting the vote out.

I spoke with Dave Ward, the General Secretary of the CWU earlier today about his thoughts on the result: