Postal Union Spokesperson Admits Strike Could Affect Election

5 November 2019, 13:35 | Updated: 5 November 2019, 13:39

A furious postal union spokesperson told Nick Ferrari why their decision to strike is not "politically motivated" but admitted that it could disrupt postal votes in the election.

Terry Pulinger said claims from Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom that the Communication Worker's Union were aiming to "ruin Christmas" and refusing to deliver postal votes was "absolute nonsense."

"It's correct to say we'll be considering what action to take once we're in a position to do so. We're still in a resolution process until the end of this week," Pulinger said, and added that if there's not progressive conversations around pay and hours, then they will organise industrial action.

Pulinger confirmed that the timing had nothing to do with Christmas or the election.

He called that presumption "insulting" and said, "There's 86,500 people participating in a ballot about what's happening to them, their workplace and what's happening to this great public service.

"Our disagreement was lodged in May of this year."

He continued that suddenly a snap election has come out of the blue "from politicians who've arguably been on strike for three years", referring to the Brexit delays, and now his union is being accused of calculated behaviour.

The conflict arose firstly when the Royal Mail Service became privatised and after initially being resolved, a new board of managers being brought in have negated on the prior agreements made with the union body.

In the above statement, hitting back at the Conservative statement, the union said "If you didn't privatise Royal Mail we wouldn't be here."

Nick Ferrari repeatedly pushed Pulinger to answer whether he'd be prepared to strike during the voting period and he said "without doubt" they'd be taking industrial action before Christmas if no progress was made.