Proactive Investors - Royal Mail workers solidified their stance in the dispute over pay and conditions on Thursday, voting almost strongly in favour of renewed walkouts.
Some 115,000 Royal Mail staff from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are now poised to add to the 18 days of walkouts since August, which have cost parent company International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) roughly £200mln.
The union said its members voted by 95.9% on a 77.3% turnout to take further strike action, up from the turnout on the two previous ballots and "the biggest mandate for strike action since the implementation of the 2016 Trade Union Act".
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “This vote is a historic testament to CWU members across the country who have stood firm against the most severe attacks faced by any set of workers since the miners.
“It is proof that postal workers will not accept their livelihoods being destroyed so that a few at the top can generate serious profits at their expense.
“It is proof that for Royal Mail to begin functioning normally again, there needs to be a change in negotiating approach from its leadership that recognises the depth of feeling from the workforce that make their company.”
On the same day, train drivers across the UK decided to walk out for a further four days between March and April in a move that rail bosses argued was “totally unjustified”.
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from across 14 companies will walk out on the 16, 18 and 30 March, as well as 1 April.
Network Rail staff, responsible for maintenance, will also strike on 16 March and commit to an overtime ban.
Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said the fresh strikes were in response to rail employers not being given a fresh mandate by the government to offer a new pay deal.
He described the move as “stubborn,” suggesting ministers could settle the dispute “easily by unshackling the rail companies”.
The Rail Delivery Group, which heads negotiations for companies, responded by saying the latest round of strikes was costing firms “more money at a time they can least afford it”.
Rail minister Huw Merriman has previously claimed strikes were costing the industry £25mln per weekday and £15mln on each weekend day in January, suggesting it would have been far cheaper to have come to a deal last year.
The economic-wide cost of is said to have been around the £6.6bn mark since the summer, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research, prior to two days of walkouts by rail workers in early February, which took their total to 27 since last February.