Royal Mail has announced plans to cut 1,600 jobs.
The cuts, mainly of back-room and Head Office jobs, come in the wake of the privatisation of the service late last year.
Unite and the CWU union, both of whom have many members working in the post, have said they are considering balloting for strike action. A spokesman from Unite claimed the job cuts had been calculated to make the service more attractive to the market.
Almost four months ago, the CWU agreed a deal with management that would give Royal Mail workers a 9% pay increase and a range of guarantees against zero-hour contracts and compulsory job losses.
In return, the union agreed to measures which would curtail the potential for local strikes. Even if voluntary redundancies were forthcoming, the scale of the job cuts in this new announcement raises serious questions about whether Royal Mail bosses will honour the agreement.
Privatisation means running services for private profit, rather than for social need. Fighting against these cuts will take not just the threat of industrial action, but a willingness to carry it through.
