More Courier Strikes Could Impact UK Christmas eCommerce Deliveries
More bad news for UK eCommerce sellers and customers as the Unite union has announced new courier strikes from the Arrow XL courier company. Arrow XL is a specialized courier that offers two-person deliveries for a number of major UK retailers including Amazon, The Very Group, and LG Electronics.
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This strike joins the ongoing dispute currently taking place between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union in ongoing strike action due to take place between October and November. The Arrow XL strikes are due to take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday up until Christmas Eve causing significant disruption during the busiest shopping period of the year.
More Courier Strikes Called Due To Ongoing Pay Disputes
Similar to the Royal Mail courier strikes the Arrow XL dispute is also a dispute over the offered pay rise. The workforce, which includes drivers, warehouse staff, and customer service workers, has been offered just five percent on their pay, which, with the real rate of inflation (RPI) standing at 12.3 percent, is a substantial real-term pay cut.
Arrow’s latest accounts reveal that Arrow XL’s turnover increased by 27 percent in 2021 and it recorded a £1.9 million profit. On top of that, the union is keen to point out that the highest-paid director at Arrow received £539,000 in 2021 – an 84 percent pay rise on the previous year.
“Arrow XL bosses are on huge salaries but are demanding low-paid workers take a pay cut. This is just not acceptable.” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
“This is another dismal case of a profitable employer and owners, the extremely rich Barclay family, who can easily afford to pay properly but are refusing to do so. Arrow XL needs to put a much better offer on the table or face disruption ahead of Christmas because Unite will be providing our members with the union’s complete support throughout this dispute.”
If you are an eCommerce seller that uses the Arrow XL service, it would be wise to quickly try and get an alternative service in place to minimize the impact on your business of the various courier strikes.
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Dave Furness
Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.
Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.