Today’s falling kni- no, I’m not going to go that far but, as expected, postal workers at Royal Mail (LSE: RMG) have voted to go on a national strike on 4 November, causing the shares to fall by more than 3%.
Recent trading saw the share price of the postal service close at 489p yesterday after the first day of official trading, a vast premium to the initial price of 330p. But today’s news caused the share price to drop to around 472p at the time of writing.
Royal Mail workers voted four to one in favour of the strike action, according to the Communication Workers Union, which they hope will protect the current terms and conditions of their job roles in light of the privitisation.
Management had hoped that by giving full-time staff 725 shares each, free of charge, the strike action may be avoided but it wasn’t enough to appease the postal workers.
Royal Mail is no stranger to strikes, although the last one was four years ago now. But as shareholders, we ought to be aware how much of an impact that strike action has on the shares, and ask ourselves how liable the group will be to further strikes in light of that.
Some investors will be patting themselves on the back if they sold their holdings at the top end of the shares’ price, while others will be more than satisfied to hold and watch the dividends roll in over the years. Which camp are you in? Answers in the box below!
