Postal workers cheer strike vote |
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From a CWU member |
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Delegates at the Communication Workers Union Conference stood and cheered when the results of the Royal Mail and Post Office pay ballots were announced. The membership rejected management’s below inflation 2.5% pay with strings offer by 3-1 majorities on a turnout of over 66%. It is now likely that the first national strike action in Royal Mail and Post Office for 11 years will take place, unless the company backs down from its hard line stance. There are few signs that management will back down because the dispute is fast becoming a trial of strength with a still strongly organised workforce in the context of the government sponsored programme of postal liberalisation, automation and privatisation - all of which directly threaten up to 40,000 jobs and pay and conditions. As the CWU puts it in a letter to Royal Mail managers, as far as management is concerned the workforce is “25% overpaid and 40% under worked.” Management’s proposals include an end to Sunday and Bank holiday collections, and major reductions in nightshift and overtime working. Cuts in overtime hit postal workers hard because basic hourly rates are so low - about £8 an hour, with many working sixty hours a week or more to make a living wage. Additionally Post Office management is closing over 2000 LOCAL Post Offices and franchising 85 Crown Offices without an agreement with the CWU. Strike action is looking likely despite the CWU Postal Executive stated intention of avoiding industrial action if at all possible, but management is belligerent. Industrial action tactics have not yet been decided but all out indefinite action has already been ruled out, which is premature in front of a management which has few inhibitions in the tactics it is likely to use. Offers of support have been forthcoming including that of Mark Serwotka’s PCS General Secretary to coordinate public sector action. This should be accepted and built on. Gordon Brown will publicly maintain a hands-off approach, while privately supporting Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier to the hilt. He will see any dispute as an opportunity to allay any remaining City and Blairite fears that he may be a soft touch for the unions. However a determined campaign can win. While competition is eating into the most profitable parts of the business, Royal Mail still handles 99% of letter deliveries for example. |
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