Communication Workers Union (UK)

CWU

Full name	Communication Workers Union
Founded	1995
Members	191,192 (2015)
Affiliation	TUC, ICTU, STUC, Alliance for Finance, Labour,NSSN
Key people	Dave Ward, General Secretary
Office location	150 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1RX
Country	United Kingdom
Website	www.cwu.org

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is the main trade union in the United Kingdom for people working for telephone, cable, DSL and postal delivery companies. It has 204,500 members.

Formed in 1995, by the merger of the Union of Communication Workers and National Communications Union, its current general secretary is Dave Ward. CWU members work for Royal Mail, the Post Office, BT, O2, cable TV, Accenture HR Services, Orange, Virgin Media and other communication companies. Members' expertise includes engineering, computing, clerical, mechanical, driving, retail, financial and manual skills.

The basis of the strike was a disagreement over pay and pensions. On 7 June 2007, the union's postal members voted by 77.5% to strike after a 2.5% pay rise coupled with £350 million every year for five years (totalling £1.5 billion) of cuts was offered. They took their first one-day strike on 29 June 2007, and the second on 12 July and 13 July. The action then progressed to a series of rolling strikes.

Further industrial action was taken in 2009. An overwhelming three to one vote in favour backed the dispute and two days of national strike action were called in October 2009. This followed significant periods of local strike action in London, Bristol and areas of Scotland. Following the national days of action, the TUC were involved in brokering an "interim agreement" that provided a "period of calm" for the union and Royal Mail to negotiate a full and final agreement on the introduction of modernisation and relevant working practices. Following the interim agreement, strike action was suspended and talks held under the auspices of Acas.

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