Royal Mail Strikes to Disrupt Mail and Deliveries Across UK

UPDATE 08/23/2022: Amazon just announced that they will extend delivery date promises to Amazon customers for seller-fulfilled orders during the Royal Mail strikes. The planned 4-day protest is expected to cause UK-wide postal disruptions, prompting the retail giant to create a contingency plan to minimize customer dissatisfaction that may impact seller account health.

⚠️ In one week, over 115,000 Royal Mail workers will go on strike over pay, which could jeopardize deliveries and collections across the UK. If you haven’t done so already, it’d be wise to find an alternative carrier ASAP to avoid delays or lost parcels in the coming weeks.

When is the Mass Walkout Happening?

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), a group that represents British postal workers, recently announced that they will stage four days of industrial action, a protest against low pay and poor working conditions, on the following dates:

• August 26, Friday
• August 31, Wednesday
• September 8, Thursday
• September 9, Friday

The August Royal Mail strikes are also set to coincide with:

• Crown Post Office protest on the 27th. Employees who work in 114 Crown Post branches will stop work again in an escalating fight over pay. The staff rejected and took industrial action against the 3% pay offer and £500 lump sum by the Post Office last month because it wasn’t enough to improve their living standards, especially at a time when inflation is at 10.1%.
• Strike at Port of Felixstowe from August 21st to 29th. Around 2,000 dockers at UK’s largest container port will protest for 8 days over poor pay. Transport economists at MDS Transmodal estimate that this week-long industrial action could put $4.7B in trade on hold, potentially delaying the arrival of goods expected to go on sale this holiday season. Companies that rely on the port like Amazon, Mars Foods, GSK, and General Mills will all be impacted.
• Bank Holiday in England and Wales on the 29th. This is a public holiday that gives workers a long weekend to make the most of the summer season.
• Supply Chain & Admin action on the 30th. Union members whose jobs are related to supply chain and administration will also walk out at the end of this month in hopes of getting a fair pay increase for their hard work and dedication.

These additional walkouts could lead to an even bigger postal disruption. 😩 And if the planned protests go ahead, collectively it would be the largest summer strike ever held by postal workers in the UK, according to CWU.

Postmen walking out of their jobs on the 26th of August means you’ll have to make sure customer orders or any additional inventory must get picked up before the 25th. It’s also best to notify your customers of expected delays due to the protests. Because even if collected, they won’t be delivered right away, which could create a massive backlog of undelivered items.

Additionally, Post Office walkouts and the Bank Holiday coinciding with the Royal Mail strikes may also exacerbate the situation. So, experiencing shipping delays even after the industrial action in September is highly likely.

Certain items are at even bigger risk of being delayed during the strikes because Royal Mail will prioritize special deliveries, medical prescriptions, COVID testing kits, and tracked shipments over letters and normal parcels to minimize the impact of the upcoming disruption.

Main Reasons Behind the Postal Strikes

Postal workers are threatening to walk out of their jobs in a dispute over pay amid soaring inflation.

According to CWU, the Royal Mail leadership has presented an offer worth up to 5.5% for their workers, which they have broken down to:

• A 2% pay raise, which is too low when inflation is predicted to hit 13% before the year ends
• A £500 incentive in 2023 for reaching “unattainable” targets
• An additional 1.5% “signing away our terms and conditions” bonus

Therefore, for the union, there was never a 5.5% pay increase put on the table, resulting in approximately 97.6% of postal employees voting in favor of industrial action. 💪

Scottish Regional Secretary of CWU, Craig Anderson, told BBC that “a fair offer from our perspective would be for them [Royal Mail] to sit back round the table with us and actually look at where or what comes out at the moment with a cost-of-living crisis, where the company’s been with the profits that they’ve made, and actually start negotiating on a percentage pay raise that reflects that.”

In 2021, Royal Mail raked in £758M in profit and handed over £400M to shareholders, and £2M in bonuses to 2 CEOs and finance executives, while many employees overwhelmed by the rising costs were forced to rely on food banks to feed their families. 😓

In a report from Bloomberg, Royal Mail argued that it will suffer a full-year loss in the event of mass walkouts by their workers over several days. The negative impact of the strikes on the company will only make pay increases less affordable and therefore, could lead to layoffs.

But CWU General Secretary, Dave Ward, said, “Nobody takes the decision to strike lightly, but postal workers are being pushed to the brink. There can be no doubt that postal workers are completely united in their determination to secure the dignified, proper pay rise they deserve. The CWU’s message to Royal Mail’s leadership is simple – there will be serious disruption until you get real on pay.”

Royal Mail said it remains open to negotiate with the union to “try and avert damaging industrial action.”

Prepare Your Business for the Upcoming Disruption

With one week left before the protest, both Royal Mail and CWU only have a small window of opportunity for negotiations. So, it would be best to put some contingency plans in place now to minimize shipping and delivery delays in the event of strikes.

Here are some tips:

• Keep some buffer stock in your 3PL or supplier’s warehouse and transfer only when needed.
• Consider sending additional units via small parcel delivery for faster FBA check-in times.
• Ship parcels with alternative couriers, such as DHL, FedEx, DTDC, and UPS. While typically more expensive than Royal Mail, they will try to get your items picked up and delivered to customers on time. Plus, deliveries will not be limited to health essentials like what UK’s postal office is planning to do. For letters, consider UK Mail, Citipost Mail, The Direct Mail Company, or Whistl as alternatives.
• If shipping costs are too expensive, try to reduce your packaging to achieve smaller dimensions and pack as many units per carton as possible. Consider using a Master Carton Calculator to find your ideal carton configurations.

Related: Amazon FBA Freight Forwarder Tips to Avoid Stockouts and Reduce Costs