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THIS week began with a victory for striking workers at Royal Mail’s Hamilton delivery office. It brought to an end the latest of many unofficial postie walkouts to take place in recent years.
Star readers will be familiar with stories of heroic Communication Workers Union members standing up for victimised colleagues or fighting back against bullying bosses at depots across the country.
This weekend, couriers at private parcels firm DPD’s Cambuslang depot in Glasgow will strike over cuts to their per-parcel pay rate, in an action organised by general union GMB.
Their struggle is made all the more poignant by the fact that DPD courier Don Lane collapsed and died last Christmas, having missed appointments out of fear the company would impose penalties for missing work.
These are workers who keep Britain going. Though such cases are suddenly getting coverage in other parts of the media, the struggles and hardship of delivery workers — especially in private companies that Royal Mail bosses have long sought to emulate — are not new.
All power to them — and the DPD dispute should also remind us that large, traditional unions can be just as equipped to take on gig economy employers.