Throughout this crisis an army of silent soldiers have been keeping the country connected.
They have been doing so with a lack of protective equipment, major social distancing challenges and, like the rest of us, fear for their own safety and that of their family.
Whilst most of us lockdown at home, postal workers have been doing what they have done for the last 500 years: delivering mail and parcels to households and businesses to keep the nation moving.
Over the last few weeks we have seen an outpouring of support for key workers who are caring for our sick and serving our communities.
The slogan “may they never be deemed low-skilled again” has echoed across the country as we are forced to reassess the contribution that certain people make to our society.
Gone is the hero worship of fat cat industrialists, pop stars and footballers who have been tested before the rest of us in their gilded cages.
In its place we have ushered in praise for the refuse workers, the postal workers, the cleaners, the healthcare workers and all those doing the jobs that were once deemed as worthless.
Yesterday, we have found out – with just an hour’s notice that Royal Mail, the government and the regulator have agreed to temporarily suspend letter deliveries on a Saturday.
This action, with no negotiation with the CWU is an example of the industrial relations with the company at this point in time.
This issue is directly linked to our live national strike ballot. The last thing our union wants to do at this point is call strike action but we will not sit back and see the service and our members’ jobs destroyed.
The UK postal workers deserve better. The British public deserve better.
This is why our union has now called for the removal of CEO Rico Back and in the coming weeks we will be widening this call and asking for the public to support it.
Postal workers have literally been on the frontline of the Coronavirus war, walking, delivering, sorting and driving, all in harm’s way of an invisible enemy, to deliver what everyone now recognises as a vital service.
Today we are marking National Postal Workers Day as an opportunity to say thank you to the silent soldiers who have kept us connected.
It is also right that we pay tribute to those postal workers who have been infected by this dreadful virus and lost their lives serving their communities.
I welcome recent discussion about a ‘new normal’ emerging from this crisis.
It is high time that postal workers and other key workers were given just reward for their labour and some proper respect from Royal Mail Group.
When this crisis began, we received overwhelming support for strike action, but we postponed it in recognising that we had a service to provide for the vulnerable and the wider nation.
I hope that Royal Mail will take today to consider the true value of their employees and promise to not only protect our members’ jobs, but to enhance them once the crisis is over in honour of all that they have done.
