18/02/2026
Royal Mail Group Members,
You may have seen that the BBC has recently reported that Liam Byrne, Labour MP and Chair of the Business and Trade Select Committee, has written to the CEO of Royal Mail. In the letter, he has outlined the quality of service crisis and given the company two weeks to answer a series of questions regarding the service, including whether the company is prioritising parcels over letters. A copy of the letter is attached to this email.
This is a serious investigation from the government, spurred on by the thousands of our members who have written to their MPs over the past few months, as part of the CWU’s letter writing campaign. We are pleased that the government has not accepted Royal Mail’s attempts to explain away these issues as though this is a short-term problem.
We all know this is a company that has orchestrated a long-term UK wide crisis in customer quality, staff turnover/shortages and overtime bans. The reason being there are very senior managers still wedded to a strategy that accelerates letter decline – makes Royal Mail just another parcel courier – replicating the exploitative employment models of the competitors.
In response to this important parliamentary intervention, the union is stepping up our engagement with politicians from all political parties to ensure the voices of postal workers are fully heard by Westminster. It is therefore vital that we take any opportunity to represent the views of frontline postal workers to both the government and the public. As such, we will contact members and branches with further initiatives in due course.
CWU meeting with the Government and EP Group
We also want to report that a tripartite meeting between the CWU, EP Group and the government took place on Monday the 16th of February. Daniel Kretinsky and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade attended this meeting, where we discussed the major problems facing our members, the company and the service.
As a result of this meeting, both parties have agreed to enter a period of intensive negotiations for four weeks, facilitated by the Government. These negotiations aim to resolve all outstanding issues, including the USO reform deployment, equalisation of terms and conditions and the full implementation of the agreement reached between EP Group and Royal Mail. We will be keeping members and branches updated throughout these talks.
Next Steps
This is a moment where the union needs to mobilise and come together to do whatever is necessary to defend our members, customers and the UK postal service.
Our objective is to ensure that all parties, EP Group/Royal Mail and the CWU, honour and deliver the commitments made in Rebuilding Royal Mail Parts One and Two. The positive vision of the future that was laid out in these agreements is the only sustainable way forward for Royal Mail and we need all stakeholders- Royal Mail, Ofcom and the government to come together with the union and align on this vision.
We will be briefing your local union representatives imminently and in the near future, we will be asking you to support further key activities that the union will be undertaking to defend your job and the service. Further communications will be sent to you next week.
With your support we will influence the future in a positive way.
Yours in solidarity,
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
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Related links:
https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Royal-Mail-Deliveries-Letter-1.pdf
https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Rebuilding-Royal-Mail-Agreement-Part-1.pdf
https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CWU-Pay-Document-3rd-July-2025.pdf
