A wave of industrial action over pay and safety standards is expected to bring widespread disruption to the railways, airports and post offices over the Christmas period.

More than 3,000 Post Office workers were taking industrial action on Monday in a dispute over proposed branch closures and pay. On Southern rail staff are continuing their dispute with the train operator over the role of guards, bringing disruption to about 300,000 passengers.

Meanwhile, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic face industrial action over Christmas. Talks aimed at averting strikes by British Airways cabin crew over Christmas will be held at Acas on Monday, but unless a deal is reached, members of Unite are due to strike on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in a dispute over pay.

Conservative MPs have criticised the strikes as “politically motivated”, calling for tougher laws to make it harder for staff to take action. But Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, dismissed the suggestion, saying the UK already had some of the most draconian anti-union laws in the western world.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she added: “Some MPs seem to be calling for even more draconian laws against trade unions ... most people agree striking is the last resort; we don’t want to do that, we want a fair agreement but the right to strike is a fundamental British liberty that the vast majority of the public support.”

O’Grady said working people in the UK were worse off than before the financial crisis and they were demanding a fair deal from their employers.

“These disputes are all different but we are working in a background where workers are still £20 a week worse off than before the financial crash, we have had pay cuts come in, we have had the rise of zero-hours contracts and sham self employment.”

She said unions successfully negotiated and settled “thousands of deals” every year without resorting to strike action, adding: “I think perhaps you should be focusing on what is wrong with these companies that we are ending up in a situation of a dispute. ”

Unions say that Monday’s strike by Post Office workers will involve about 3,500 workers taking industrial action over branch closures, jobs and pensions. The CWU said hundreds of crown post offices would be hit

However, Mark Davies, the head of communication at the Post Office, told the Today programme that the vast majority of customers would not be affected. “The message today to customers of the Post Office service going out to post Christmas letters and parcels is that it will be business as usual. This very regrettable strike action will have a minimal impact on customers.”

The CWU general secretary, Dave Ward, has accused managers of rejecting a peace offer and warned of a continuing closure programme that would mean the Post Office would cease to exist on high streets.

It is thought the impact of the strike might be exacerbated by Royal Mail staff refusing to cross picket lines to collect mail from post offices.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “There will be little or no impact on Royal Mail as a result of the CWU strike at the Post Office. Deliveries will carry on as normal and the last posting dates for Christmas remain unchanged.”



Our 120,000 Royal Mail frontline colleagues are not involved in the Post Office dispute.

“Post Office limited has over 11,000 branches which will continue to operate as normal. Customers who need to post at a Post Office should use these branches.

“Royal Mail customers will also continue to have access to Royal Mail services including pre-paid parcel drop- off through over 1,200 Customer Service Points at Delivery Offices nationwide.”

Meanwhile, the strike by conductors in the RMT union on the Southern rail franchise – coupled with a continuing ban on overtime by drivers in the Aslef union – is expected to bring a second week of havoc to 300,000 passengers between London and the south coast on Monday and Tuesday.

The RMT strikes are part of a long-running dispute over the role of conductors, with further walkouts planned for next month. Aslef has joined the RMT dispute, striking for three days last week and entirely shutting down the Southern network.