Strike action closes Kettering post office

Post Office workers at branches directly owned by the Post Office are staging a one-day strike in a pay freeze dispute dubbed a ‘slap in the face’ by union members.

Kettering’s Lower Street branch was closed today (May 3) with customers being redirected to sub-post offices for services.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are protesting the pay freeze for 2021-22 and voted by 97.3 per cent on a 70.2 per cent turnout to take strike action.

A total of 114 Crown Post Offices will close for a 24-hour period, with no cash deliveries or collections from the UK’s 11,500 sub-post offices.

CWU Assistant Secretary Andy Furey said: “Post Office management are insisting they are simply following government policy on public sector pay policy.

“But they have repeatedly contradicted themselves, and have also said that it’s their decision to impose a pay freeze.

“We know Post Office has turned over huge profits in these past few years – management can afford to provide our members with a reasonable pay increase if they wanted.

“This is not an issue of affordability. This is about power play from a management that is needlessly antagonising its key worker employees. The attitude of Post Office needs to be viewed in the context of inflation rising by at least nine per cent already this year.

“Our members don’t appreciate being taken for fools, which is why they have voted in massive numbers for strike action.

“Post Office can’t put their heads in the sand. This dispute won’t go away, and our members are united – they won’t accept a collapse in their living standards.

“To avoid more disruption to services this year, the CWU urges Post Office to get round the bargaining table and thrash out a settlement with us that treats our key worker heroes with the respect they deserve.”

The vast majority of the 11,000 branches are not covered by strike action and are open as usual.

It said in a statement: "Posters are displayed which show where the nearest alternative branches are located. Customers can also find more information at postoffice.co.uk/branch-finder."

In Kettering, Cedar Road, Edmund Street (Mill Road) and Barton Seagrave (St Botolph’s Rd) Post Offices are open as usual.