01 December 2022
By now, you should have heard the information that many Royal Mail and railway employees are hanging within the run as much as Christmas this month, and in some circumstances, into January too. It may be complicated attempting to maintain up with when employees are going to strikes, the dates they may happen on and the way you may be impacted.
Concern not, we’re right here to assist. Listed below are all of the dates employees will likely be hanging all through the approaching weeks.
Royal Mail
December brings a recent wave of strikes from Royal Mail employees, with the commercial motion set to delay deliveries of Christmas items throughout the UK. This can impression hundreds of thousands utilizing the service. Walkouts have been organized by the Communication Staff’ Union (CWU) over pay and dealing circumstances.
Some days of hanging have already been accomplished, with many extra in fast succession to come back. 115,000 members of the CWU will walkout throughout the strikes.
Royal Mail strike dates:
Thursday, 1st DecemberFriday, 9th DecemberSunday, 11th DecemberWednesday, 14th DecemberThursday, 15th DecemberFriday, 23rd DecemberSaturday, 24th December (Christmas Eve)
How will the strikes impression deliveries?
The nearer to Christmas, the extra these strikes are prone to impression the supply of final minute or late Christmas items and packages. Tens of millions of households will really feel the havoc of this, so it’s key that parcels are posted and items ordered effectively upfront.
Royal Mail are urging prospects to permit loads of time to publish gadgets this yr, suggesting 2nd class gadgets must be posted by 19th December on the very newest. 1st class gadgets must be despatched by 21st December.
Nevertheless, particular deliveries and tracked assured gadgets must be despatched no later than 22nd December. Particular deliveries with a “Saturday assure” must be despatched by 23rd December.
Worldwide publish
In case you are sending presents abroad, it’s best to enable your self much more time. There is no such thing as a such factor as too early with regards to getting your items to their vacation spot on time. In case you are sending gadgets to household and buddies within the armed forces, it’s best to purpose to publish them by 2nd December.
Deadlines for sending to different nations through commonplace worldwide mail, such because the Far and Center East, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the US, Dominica and Anguilla have handed. Equally, the deadline for posting items to Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Turkey, Japanese Europe, Western Europe and Malta through worldwide commonplace publish have handed.
Rail strikes
We’ve seen a number of rail strikes this yr, with a recent lot of 48-hour strikes coming within the run-up to Christmas and into the brand new yr. Not too long ago, talks failed to interrupt down the commercial dispute, which means extra walkouts have been deliberate.
40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport employees union (RMT) will stroll out over an 8-day interval within the coming weeks. Trains will stop to run between 2am on the strike day and 2am the next day, inflicting two days of disruption to companies.
Safety workers at Eurostar can even go on strike this month, strolling out on December 16th, 18th, 22nd and 23rd.
Strikes, alongside deliberate engineering work over the festive interval imply some traces will likely be out of service for a lot of weeks from the center of December. It’s anticipated that only one in 5 trains will run on strike days.
Strike dates
Nationwide strike dates:
Tuesday, 13th DecemberWednesday, 14th DecemberFriday, 16th DecemberSaturday, 17th DecemberTuesday, 3rd January Wednesday, 4th January Friday, 6th January Saturday, 7th January
Regional strike dates:
Friday, 2nd December – Unite strike impacting East Midlands RailwaysSaturday, 3rd December – Unite strike impacting East Midlands RailwaysSunday, 11th December – RMT Avanti West Coast strikeMonday, 12th December – RMT Avanti West Coast strikeFriday, 23rd December – Unite strike impacting East Midlands RailwaysSaturday, 24th December – Unite strike impacting East Midlands Railways
Affected practice operators
LNERNorthern trainsAvanti West CoastSoutheasternCross NationChiltern RailwaysHull TrainsBetter AngliaGovia Thameslink (plus Gatwick Specific)London UndergroundWest Midlands Trains (plus London Northwestern Railway)Nice Western RailwayTranspennine Specific