Royal Mail 19-day strike begins in Edinburgh - the dates, deliveries affected including Black Friday week

Here is everything you need to know about the ongoing industrial action by Royal Mail workers in Edinburgh.

Royal Mail workers in Edinburgh started  19-days of strike action on Thursday, October 13 over continuing pay and conditions dispute. Thursday’s strike action will last 24 hours with 18 other dates scheduled to go ahead between now and Christmas.

In July, postal workers voted overwhelmingly in support of strike action in protest of pay and working conditions, after Royal Mail imposed a 2% pay increase as inflation in the United Kingdom approaches 10%.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which is leading the strike, said the issue has been “worsened” by “public provocation” from senior leaders at the 500-year-old former state postal monopoly, following a letter by CEO Simon Thompson too CWU on September 22 in which he “threatened” to withdraw from several existing national agreements.

CWU Strike

Royal Mail executives have since reiterated that the company is losing approximately £1 million per day and that the industrial action poses a threat to jobs as well as the company’s future viability. They also accuse the union’s vision of putting the company in a worse position to compete with other businesses.

In September, CWU members walked out on a 48-hour strike and affected post deliveries across the country after talks between the two sides collapsed, resulting in further industrial action by the trade union in the coming weeks.

Here’s everything you need to know about the strike action as it is taking place for 19 days throughout the UK.

How long is the Royal Mail strike and what are the dates?

The strike kicks off on Thursday, October 19, with a national action by all union members across the country. Workers involved in the strike are those in the network and national distribution, parcel and letter processing and distribution, international parcel and letter services, collections, parcel and letter deliveries.

Full dates are listed below:

October 13 to October 14 (Pay)

24-hour strike from 4am

October 20 to October 21 (Change)

24-hour strike from 4am

October 25 to October 26 (Change)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 2 to November 3 (All Network)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 3 to November 4 (All Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 4 to November 5 (All deliveries)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 8 to November 9 (All Network)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 10 to November 11 (All deliveries)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 14 to November 15 (All Network)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 15 to November 16 (All Processing, Area Distribution, International, Collections, Admin and MDEC)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 16 to November 17 (All Deliveries)

24-hour strike from 4am

Black Friday week

November 23 to November 24 (All Network)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 24 to November 25 (All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 25 to November 26 (All Deliveries)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 28 to November 29 (Everyone)

24-hour strike from 4am

November 30 to December 1 (All Network)

24-hour strike from 4am

December 1 to December 2 (All Processing, Area Distribution, Collections, International, Admin and MDEC)

24-hour strike from 4am

December 2 to December 3 (All Deliveries)

24-hour strike from 4am

What to do if the service in your area is affected by the Royal Mail strike?

Royal Mail said they will provide further detailed information about their contingency plans, services affected and our advice to customers in the event they receive formal notification for any or all of these potential strike dates.

On days when strike action is taking place, Royal Mail said they will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible, prioritise the delivery of COVID test kits and medical prescriptions wherever possible. However, they will not be delivering letters (with the exception of Special Delivery),

Members of the public are then advised to post their items as early as possible in advance of the strike dates and continue to post the items at Post Boxes or Post Offices but collections will be less frequent on days when strike action is taking place.