CWU silent on unofficial strike and witch-hunt at Glasgow G1-5 Royal Mail delivery office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/0 ... v-j02.html

Do you have any information about the walkout in Glasgow? Help break through the company-union censorship about the brutal revisions and bullying being enforced. Information can be submitted on the form at the bottom of the page and will be anonymised to protect against victimisation.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is blacking-out news and discussion about an unofficial walkout of postal workers at Glasgow’s G1-5 Royal Mail delivery office in Baird Street, Glasgow in late May.

The walkout was reportedly triggered by management bullying during a dispute over holidays. According to one report, management accused a union rep of being intimidating when the rep was simply requesting a day off for a postal worker! The manager refused to continue the meeting. The rep informed the workforce, which walked out on Friday May 19, returning to work early the following week.

The CWU leadership has suppressed news of the walkout fearful it will trigger similar unofficial action by postal workers amid mass anger over its agreement with Royal Mail that has already ushered in the biggest attacks on postal workers in history.

Postal workers starting their shifts at the Baird Street office told WSWS they had been told not to say anything. They reported that managers and union reps had been pulled in from other parts of the country as workers at the delivery office were being interrogated by management one-by-one. Such “interviews” are reportedly continuing as of June 2, as managers look for names and a scapegoat.


The strike at Baird Street came just as the CWU cancelled a ballot on their pro-company surrender deal with Royal Mail. One worker said the ballot was cancelled just before the strike, but it was the “icing on the cake”. Several CWU branches in Scotland have opposed the deal.

Workers at the delivery office agreed the CWU leadership and Royal Mail are in cahoots, with a postal worker saying this was the general view in the office. Others not immediately involved in the dispute had refused to cross an unofficial picket line set up by the strikers.

The CWU leadership know that any publicity for the strike at Baird St will generate further anger at the CWU’s agreement, hampering their ability to push the deal through and risking a wave of wildcat action against brutal revisions and management bullying greenlighted by the CWU.

News of the strike was greeted enthusiastically by postal workers on social media, with comments including, “Well done Glasgow 1-5. Is this the start of something CWU HQ can’t control” and “It should happen everywhere, until it’s all sorted out”.

Another wrote, “I’m surprised that it’s not happened sooner in DOs. RM seem to be ramming through revisions up and down the country and they don’t seem to be taking any notice of the union.” Another asked, “How come this hasn’t spread? Late 80s or could have been early 90s an office near us walked out, their mail was diverted to us, we refused to touch it and we were all suspended.”

The CWU blackout extended to concealing a strike-breaking operation by Royal Mail during the walkout. Managers from across Scotland were drafted into Glasgow to load and drive vans over the weekend of the strike. The response from local managers was insufficient with only a small number of vans operational Saturday May 20.

The following Monday, Royal Mail Operations Development Director Ricky McAulay issued a directive to “specific colleagues” that “as a result of unofficial industrial action, we are asking for your support in our Glasgow Delivery Office... for the remainder of the week.” They would be involved in “indoor sortation of mail and outdoor deliveries.” In the event, the strike was apparently over by Tuesday May 23, having been isolated and opposed by the CWU.

On May 24, the CWU announced its second suspension of national balloting on their negotiators’ agreement with Royal Mail. They clearly feared wildcat action could spread. CWU leaders Dave Ward and Andy Furey reaffirmed their support for the union’s surrender document but complained “the environment we are attempting to deliver this agreement in remains toxic”, noting the company had “not stepped back from their attacks in the workplace.”

Aware of their loss of authority, Ward and Furey complained, “Unless Royal Mail Group openly accept that their culture of imposition and the ‘our business to run’ mantra must go - then the integrity of the negotiators agreement will be irreparably damaged.”

A delivery worker from the south of England told WSWS he was not surprised the CWU had kept the walk-out under wraps, “They obviously want to keep everything quiet because they’re now in bed with management. They’re like the police arm of management, aren’t they? They’re trying to push this deal through because it consolidates their own position. I think it’s disgusting. It’s a betrayal.”

A Royal Mail worker in Fife, Scotland, said he was not aware of the Glasgow dispute at all. Every office was being left to “fight its own battles… It’s one of the things I said early on, before the strike. There should have been area meetings to prepare the strike, it would have made us stronger. There was none of that. I used to be one of these flying pickets. If there was a strike, we would go around all the other offices. They are trying to stop that happening now. But unity is strength.”

The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee is fighting to break through the disinformation and division being imposed by the CWU’s unaccountable bureaucracy. The next rank-and-file committee online Zoom meeting is being held on Sunday June 11 at 7pm.

[hazzeem025]

Who writes this shite? The Kremlin press office?

[aiden01]

Who writes this shite? The Kremlin press office?

Effing unreal.

[Neebs]

These clowns are stripping quotes from this site to fill there article .
They should just feck off we have enough s**t written about us by MSM.

[merson01]

Firstly you nothing about what has happened in Glasgow. The fact that the Union bureaucracy has suppressed news about this legitimate strike action means nothing to you. Who is this we you talk about. What is your attitude towards developments? what is your attitude towards the deal between Royal Mail and its junior partner the CWU?. Who do you represent.

[aiden01]

Firstly you nothing about what has happened in Glasgow. The fact that the Union bureaucracy has suppressed news about this legitimate strike action means nothing to you. Who is this we you talk about. What is your attitude towards developments? what is your attitude towards the deal between Royal Mail and its junior partner the CWU?. Who do you represent.

Who do you represent? go ahead fill us all in with the details of glasgow strike.

[clashcityrocker]

Firstly you nothing about what has happened in Glasgow.

But why don't the G1-5 Rank and File committee spill the beans?
They have got a rank and file committee haven't they?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Firstly you nothing about what has happened in Glasgow.

He may or may not we don't know where he is posting from.

The fact that the Union bureaucracy has suppressed news about this legitimate strike action means nothing to you.

They can't have suppressed it if there were notices on the Royal Mail update page, and I would be careful about judging someone's motivations on a web forum when an expression is hard to read.

Who is this we you talk about.

The same can be said for the author of the article and for the website it came from. I am fairly left-leaning myself but even I recognise there aren't many posties that called themselves Socialists.

What is your attitude towards developments? what is your attitude towards the deal between Royal Mail and its junior partner the CWU?. Who do you represent.

He represents himself, and he is passing an opinion on an article, the reasons why this forum exists and allows posts from the Left, the right, and from Management and the shop floor.

May I say alienating and questioning the motivations of someone who posts on here, isn't a good strategy for getting people to agree with your views.

[merson01]

May I say alienating and questioning the motivations of someone who posts on here, isn't a good strategy for getting people to agree with your views.” How very impartial of you to dissect my post so thoroughly. Why not take the same attitude to such comments as “Who writes this shite? The Kremlin press office?”, “They should just feck off…”, “Ah, now it becomes clearer....a donation request in the middle of all the unattributed ‘quotes. It was all a money-making scheme all along.”, “You and your cohorts at whatever the f**k you lot are calling yourselves this week are simply in it for the chaos.”, “Come the revolution my side will liquidate you silly Bolsheviks…” No? All good in the cut-and-thrust of healthy debate? Thought so.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

May I say alienating and questioning the motivations of someone who posts on here, isn't a good strategy for getting people to agree with your views.” How very impartial of you to dissect my post so thoroughly. Why not take the same attitude to such comments as “Who writes this shite? The Kremlin press office?”, “They should just feck off…”, “Ah, now it becomes clearer....a donation request in the middle of all the unattributed ‘quotes. It was all a money-making scheme all along.”, “You and your cohorts at whatever the f**k you lot are calling yourselves this week are simply in it for the chaos.”, “Come the revolution my side will liquidate you silly Bolsheviks…” No? All good in the cut-and-thrust of healthy debate? Thought so.

Beacuse you made it personal

you know nothing

egitimate strike action means nothing to you.

Who do you represent.

Also I didn't write it as a moderator, but as a ordinary member - I even say as much in my signature block. If its in green its me acting as a Mod, if its in any other colour its my personal opinion.

[clashcityrocker]

No? All good in the cut-and-thrust of healthy debate? Thought so.

The difference is we are RM workers on a predominantly RM workers website.
You come on here with an agenda that involves slagging off our union at every given opportunity.
You don't come on here for healthy debate so you don't get any.

If you can't stand the heat......

[merson01]

“Because you made it personal” 2. “Also I didn't write it as a moderator, but as a ordinary member.” Really? You are continuing with attempts to justify your intervention?
Personal comments and the attribution of motive are the issue, you say. How about “You are the worst kind of opportunist Tony, trying to tie your personal political agenda to the backs of working men and women… For you this is nothing to do with the rights or wrongs of the agreement or what happens next to the people involved or their families.” Or perhaps, “You wank on about them as though they are going to do something, using big words you have learned from your Bolshevism for Dummies handbook.”
As I said, your outrage is selective because you are sympathetic to the supposedly fragile individuals I am supposed to have maligned. That is your right, and no one ever said otherwise. But don’t pretend that is not the case. I say this not because I am upset by such right-wing nonsense. Nothing more could be expected from those who are trying to defend the CWU’s rotten agreement from criticism. But it is still extraordinary that clashcity rocker can write that he and his will “liquidate you silly Bolsheviks (both of you)” without this bothering you in the slightest—as a moderator or as an ordinary member."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

“Because you made it personal” 2. “Also I didn't write it as a moderator, but as a ordinary member.” Really? You are continuing with attempts to justify your intervention?
Personal comments and the attribution of motive are the issue, you say. How about “You are the worst kind of opportunist Tony, trying to tie your personal political agenda to the backs of working men and women… For you this is nothing to do with the rights or wrongs of the agreement or what happens next to the people involved or their families.” Or perhaps, “You wank on about them as though they are going to do something, using big words you have learned from your Bolshevism for Dummies handbook.”
As I said, your outrage is selective because you are sympathetic to the supposedly fragile individuals I am supposed to have maligned. That is your right, and no one ever said otherwise. But don’t pretend that is not the case. I say this not because I am upset by such right-wing nonsense. Nothing more could be expected from those who are trying to defend the CWU’s rotten agreement from criticism. But it is still extraordinary that clashcity rocker can write that he and his will “liquidate you silly Bolsheviks (both of you)” without this bothering you in the slightest—as a moderator or as an ordinary member."

No outrage here. Yes, I am a Moderator, but that does not stop me from having personal opinions. I try to keep the 2 separate. Or aren't I allowed that?

As a moderator, I will amend posts that "outrage" me, I have not done that. I merely commented about a subject and will continue to do so. As I said if your want to get people on your side, answering criticism about the article in the way you did is not the way to go. If you are the author of the article as it is a published article you must expect some criticism, perhaps some colourful language occasionally.

Oh and a statement of fact - I am against the agreement and will be voting against it, and I have and will criticise the CWU when I think they need to be. But perhaps because I am not a revolutionary socialist you see me as right-wing.

[steve2zaf]

“Because you made it personal” 2. “Also I didn't write it as a moderator, but as a ordinary member.” Really? You are continuing with attempts to justify your intervention?
Personal comments and the attribution of motive are the issue, you say. How about “You are the worst kind of opportunist Tony, trying to tie your personal political agenda to the backs of working men and women… For you this is nothing to do with the rights or wrongs of the agreement or what happens next to the people involved or their families.” Or perhaps, “You wank on about them as though they are going to do something, using big words you have learned from your Bolshevism for Dummies handbook.”
As I said, your outrage is selective because you are sympathetic to the supposedly fragile individuals I am supposed to have maligned. That is your right, and no one ever said otherwise. But don’t pretend that is not the case. I say this not because I am upset by such right-wing nonsense. Nothing more could be expected from those who are trying to defend the CWU’s rotten agreement from criticism. But it is still extraordinary that clashcity rocker can write that he and his will “liquidate you silly Bolsheviks (both of you)” without this bothering you in the slightest—as a moderator or as an ordinary member."

No outrage here. Yes, I am a Moderator, but that does not stop me from having personal opinions. I try to keep the 2 separate. Or aren't I allowed that?

As a moderator, I will amend posts that "outrage" me, I have not done that. I merely commented about a subject and will continue to do so. As I said if your want to get people on your side, answering criticism about the article in the way you did is not the way to go. If you are the author of the article as it is a published article you must expect some criticism, perhaps some colourful language occasionally.

Oh and a statement of fact - I am against the agreement and will be voting against it, and I have and will criticise the CWU when I think they need to be. But perhaps because I am not a revolutionary socialist you see me as right-wing.

Well said True Blue - You and many , many of us will be voting against this awful deal . Also against a union that only has its self interest at heart.