ROYALLY SHAFTED

Firm blocks cost of living pay rise. Threat of joint strikes with RMT

- GRAHAM HISCOTT

AS postal staff struggle with the cost of living crisis, bosses enjoy bumper pay and bonuses and have lavished billions of pounds on shareholders.

But Royal Mail chiefs refuse to give workers a decent wage rise as inflation rages and a union claims the firm is plotting to shed up to 25,000 jobs and reduce letter deliveries to three days a week.

Royal Mail has dished out £1.9billion to shareholders since it was privatized in 2013 and chief executive Simon Thompson got a pay and perks deal worth £753,000 in its last financial year.

Yesterday, 115,000 staff began a fresh 48-hour strike.

The Communication Workers Union has announced another eight days of stoppages, including Christmas Eve. And postal and rail workers could unite for a wave of co-ordinated strikes as industrial action spreads through the public and private sectors like wildfire.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said yesterday: "This is a brutal attack on one of the greatest companies in the UK.

"We are looking at the end of Royal Mail as we know it, and we can't accept it.