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Royal Mail workers are today holding the first of 19 strikes amid a dispute over pay and conditions. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) insisted that settling the dispute is “not complicated” because the company “can afford” to increase pay.

It said 115,000 members across the UK would walk out in a 24-hour strike starting at 4am this morning.

The other 19 days of industrial action include Black Friday week and Cyber Monday.

Explaining the need for the action, the CWU said: “Our Royal Mail members have had an unagreed tow percent pay deal imposed on them.

“This is at a time when RPI inflation is currently running at 11.8 percent and when Royal Mail has announced Group profits of £758million and when the company is paying out many millions to private shareholders.”

More than 97 percent of its Royal Mail members voted to take action in a recent national strike ballot over pay.

The Royal Mail has argued the strikes will “weaken” its financial position.

A spokesperson said: “Royal Mail is losing £1million a day and must change faster in response to changing customer demands.”

But the communications union argued that the matter was not at all complicated, adding that if the postal company wants to settle the dispute, there is simply action that it can afford to take.

In a statement, it said: “The pay dispute is not complicated.

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“Our members are striking for a pay rise that fully addresses the current cost of living.

“Our members need it, our members deserve it – the company can afford it.

The union has also accused the Royal Mail of planning damaging structural change, including cutting workers’ sick pay and delaying the arrival of post by three hours.

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General Secretary Dave Ward, quoted in the BBC, said this could lead to the “destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK”.

He added that the plans amounted to an “asset-stripping business plan” that could result in the company being broken up.

Mr Ward also said workers faced the “biggest ever assault” on jobs and conditions “in the history of the Royal Mail”.

Some Royal Mail services will continue running during the strike action but are likely to be severely disrupted.

No letters will be delivered during strike days.

The company said it could deliver as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible.

A spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to minimise any delays and keep people, businesses and the country connected.”

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