CWU CONDEMNS PROPOSED ROYAL MAIL PRIVATISATION

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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The Communication Workers Union condemns plans announced today to privatise Royal Mail and vows to fight the politically motivated move by all means.

A YouGov poll last month found a majority of voters of every party oppose privatising Royal Mail with support at only 15 per cent. At the same time, Royal Mail is a market leader and the company’s profits rose by 26 per cent to £404 million in 2010. A fully funded modernisation programme agreed by both management and unions is in place bringing stability to the company. Royal Mail’s pension scheme assets total around £26 billion.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: “Privatisation is old politics. It’s the failed politics of history which brought disruption to Britain’s utilities and railways and astronomical prices for consumers. Dangerously in this case, we fear the government may also be plotting to seize the pension assets.

“Privatisation would be devastating for Royal Mail and the whole country’s postal services. The universal service has been a key part of the UK post for 170 years but because it isn’t the profitable element of mail, the privatisation will put it at risk. This could damage the service for all customers including millions of small business and potentially harm the UK economy. Privatisation will also mean separation of Royal Mail and the post office network, putting the very existence of many more post offices that play such a key role in Britain’s communities at risk.

“Closures, cuts and profit will rule while customers, small businesses, communities and tax payers lose out. This report is politically motivated to please the ideology of the coalition. People who work in the industry know that privatisation has no positive role in this public service. Richard Hooper’s report of 2008 was flawed and his vision was proved to be unachievable. He still doesn’t have the answers to the challenges facing the postal service but faithfully trots out what his political masters request.

“Royal Mail has always been a privatisation too far and there is a public majority out there who will vote this government out for flogging off our national assets and breaking our public services.”

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Everyone’s a loser if you privatise the Royal Mail. Jobs and services will suffer and customers will see prices soar.

“We’ve put in place a detailed and fully funded modernisation programme which is dramatically transforming Royal Mail. Why does the government want to threaten the stability and capital of this programme when it’s proving a major success?

“We fear the pensions of our members will be at risk under privatisation. Everyone hears about the deficit, but there’s over £26 billion in assets which belongs to the postmen and women who have paid their contributions every week of their working lives. We will never let the government get its hands on that money for anything other than what it’s intended - to pay for the retirement of hard-working postal workers.

“Postal workers have invested in the modernisation of the service by fully supporting the business transformation agreement signed earlier this year. The company and its employees are working hard to transform the business together. Rather than reverse the progress, the government needs to show the same support for this key public service.”

[bobbyden]

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6654

The Communication Workers Union condemns plans announced today to privatise Royal Mail and vows to fight the politically motivated move by all means.

A YouGov poll last month found a majority of voters of every party oppose privatising Royal Mail with support at only 15 per cent. At the same time, Royal Mail is a market leader and the company’s profits rose by 26 per cent to £404 million in 2010. A fully funded modernisation programme agreed by both management and unions is in place bringing stability to the company. Royal Mail’s pension scheme assets total around £26 billion.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: “Privatisation is old politics. It’s the failed politics of history which brought disruption to Britain’s utilities and railways and astronomical prices for consumers. Dangerously in this case, we fear the government may also be plotting to seize the pension assets.

“Privatisation would be devastating for Royal Mail and the whole country’s postal services. The universal service has been a key part of the UK post for 170 years but because it isn’t the profitable element of mail, the privatisation will put it at risk. This could damage the service for all customers including millions of small business and potentially harm the UK economy. Privatisation will also mean separation of Royal Mail and the post office network, putting the very existence of many more post offices that play such a key role in Britain’s communities at risk.

“Closures, cuts and profit will rule while customers, small businesses, communities and tax payers lose out. This report is politically motivated to please the ideology of the coalition. People who work in the industry know that privatisation has no positive role in this public service. Richard Hooper’s report of 2008 was flawed and his vision was proved to be unachievable. He still doesn’t have the answers to the challenges facing the postal service but faithfully trots out what his political masters request.

“Royal Mail has always been a privatisation too far and there is a public majority out there who will vote this government out for flogging off our national assets and breaking our public services.”

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Everyone’s a loser if you privatise the Royal Mail. Jobs and services will suffer and customers will see prices soar.

“We’ve put in place a detailed and fully funded modernisation programme which is dramatically transforming Royal Mail. Why does the government want to threaten the stability and capital of this programme when it’s proving a major success?

“We fear the pensions of our members will be at risk under privatisation. Everyone hears about the deficit, but there’s over £26 billion in assets which belongs to the postmen and women who have paid their contributions every week of their working lives. We will never let the government get its hands on that money for anything other than what it’s intended - to pay for the retirement of hard-working postal workers.

“Postal workers have invested in the modernisation of the service by fully supporting the business transformation agreement signed earlier this year. The company and its employees are working hard to transform the business together. Rather than reverse the progress, the government needs to show the same support for this key public service.”

The assertion put forward by Dave Ward; "We've put in place a detailed and fully funded modernisation programme which is drastically transforming Royal Mail. Why does the government want to threaten the stability and capital of this programme when it's proving a major success?"

For talking such utter garbage, Ward should resign and take Hayes( another dire performance in front of the camera ) with him. Quite honestly, the CWU is almost impossible to take seriously with these two in charge. The Ivory tower they sit in is on a totally different planet to the reality of planet earth.

The rapidity of the decline within the Royal Mail since this awful agreement came into place has to be seen to be believed. I see it over the period of 40 hours per week. I see a demotivated workforce, I see managers behaving like control freaks, I see a cut in budgets, I see a crude lapse in duties, I see a warped obsession with targets, performance analysis and figures, figures and more figures, I see patronising thanks when the targets are reached and I see a sharp retort when things go wrong. Yes, the staff are left feeling high and dry all too often in an atmosphere which is frankly dreadful.

I am totally against any form of privatisation within the Royal Mail. It is not right for the Royal Mail and is certainly not right for the workforce. I hold Dave Ward and Billy Hayes accountable for jumping into bed with the bosses and creating a living nightmare which is an even bigger disaster than the Way Forward nonsense of the year 2000, which more or less condemned our delivery network to a long slow death. Of course, the CWU blame the management for that, failing of course, as per usual, to accept responsibility for their part in all of this.

It really is time for the CWU to start getting real and start taking the workforce they represent seriously. I want to see better leadership and stronger values from the CWU. Ward and Hayes are washed up and the sooner they are removed the better. Today was the last straw for them.

[Martin Walsh]

Last years dispute was about getting an agreement with Royal Mail who were introducing their Business plan without agreement with the workforce including executive action. Now this was achieved and accepted by the members who voted in the ballot. Now do you really think life would have been better without this agreement ? The answer is no ,it would have been worse with Royal Mail introducing their delviery plans including CDVs , walk sequencing , later saturdays and the changes to the workplan along with the IWT and geo route without any safeguards or benefits. They would have closed mail centres without any consultation of improvements in mtsf or any safeguards against complusory redundancies.

Plus do you really think Royal Mail would have kept turning away business in a declining world wide industry such as door to door ? To many quote on here that Royal Mail made a profit . Yes but the profit was very small given the fact that it has a 7.5 billion turnover and that the forigen parcels business which Royal Mail own GLS also made the same profit but has less than 500 million turnover.

Now lets examine why the CWU want to defeat for the 4th time privitisation. Royal Mail is hampered by a pension defcit , the inabilty due to the access headroom to compete in the bulk mail market which has seen them lose work to DSA. For the record Royal Mail would have made a profit of 800 million if they had not had post comm access constraints.

Now this lib con plan is to take the pension defecit on which is a just an accounting con but the real prize is to get their hands on the 25 billion of assets in the pension scheme which would in one fair swoop reduce the government borrowing by one of the biggest repayments in history. But this is not the Governments money , nor is it Royal Mail`s money or even the trustees money its is our members money. Now the other reason why they would to do this is they cannot sell the company without getting rid of the pension defecit and making some movement on the headroom access.

The other real problem is that the government plans are for Royal Mail only and that POL will not be included. This means that any protential buyer will have to seperate the pension schemes and the obvious and easy solution will be to close or reduce the scheme further.

Now thankfully the world which is Royal Mail chat does reflect the general opinion of the workforce I meet on a daily basis and I have yet to meet someone who is so bitter at the last agreement that they will accept being f****d by this government and have the pensions robbed and allow for shareholders to wreck this company. Examine BT or British Gas if you believe that you will be better off in the hands of shareholders who are only there to suck all the available cash out of the industry then you really are in for a shock.

Thankfully the Government are very nervous of the CWU and Hooper contact the CWU earlier in the week to say that his report would be coming out and their was a meeting with ED Davey on Weds evening.

[dvbuk55]

There we have it then, you can more or less say that the privatisation has had the kiss of death, the CWU oppose it and the Government want to get their hands on the 26billion..................................

The pension fund is not exclusive to union members by the way, it is all employees, so everyone, member or not, stands to lose.

When Labour was in power did they not curtail the pension fund and increase the retirement age by five years and was there a huge hue and cry, a ballot, any opposition at all which amounted to a campaign...............................it would seem some people have short and selective memories when it suits.

[Cut Off King]

If dingo's right and the Gov. want's to get it's hand on our £25 Billion, then I think that it is a done deal

There is NO WAY that the LIB-CON's are going to let £25,000,000,000 slip away just because the CWU are upset about the plans.
Don't forget the Miners had the full power of the state used against them to ensure the decimation of that industry.

Money Talks for the tory's.

[bobbyden]

Last years dispute was about getting an agreement with Royal Mail who were introducing their Business plan without agreement with the workforce including executive action. Now this was achieved and accepted by the members who voted in the ballot. Now do you really think life would have been better without this agreement ? The answer is no ,it would have been worse with Royal Mail introducing their delviery plans including CDVs , walk sequencing , later saturdays and the changes to the workplan along with the IWT and geo route without any safeguards or benefits. They would have closed mail centres without any consultation of improvements in mtsf or any safeguards against complusory redundancies.

Plus do you really think Royal Mail would have kept turning away business in a declining world wide industry such as door to door ? To many quote on here that Royal Mail made a profit . Yes but the profit was very small given the fact that it has a 7.5 billion turnover and that the forigen parcels business which Royal Mail own GLS also made the same profit but has less than 500 million turnover.

Now lets examine why the CWU want to defeat for the 4th time privitisation. Royal Mail is hampered by a pension defcit , the inabilty due to the access headroom to compete in the bulk mail market which has seen them lose work to DSA. For the record Royal Mail would have made a profit of 800 million if they had not had post comm access constraints.

Now this lib con plan is to take the pension defecit on which is a just an accounting con but the real prize is to get their hands on the 25 billion of assets in the pension scheme which would in one fair swoop reduce the government borrowing by one of the biggest repayments in history. But this is not the Governments money , nor is it Royal Mail`s money or even the trustees money its is our members money. Now the other reason why they would to do this is they cannot sell the company without getting rid of the pension defecit and making some movement on the headroom access.

The other real problem is that the government plans are for Royal Mail only and that POL will not be included. This means that any protential buyer will have to seperate the pension schemes and the obvious and easy solution will be to close or reduce the scheme further.

Now thankfully the world which is Royal Mail chat does reflect the general opinion of the workforce I meet on a daily basis and I have yet to meet someone who is so bitter at the last agreement that they will accept being f****d by this government and have the pensions robbed and allow for shareholders to wreck this company. Examine BT or British Gas if you believe that you will be better off in the hands of shareholders who are only there to suck all the available cash out of the industry then you really are in for a shock.

Thankfully the Government are very nervous of the CWU and Hooper contact the CWU earlier in the week to say that his report would be coming out and their was a meeting with ED Davey on Weds evening.

Thankyou for your feedback. I have one or two observations to make on what you have said. Firstly in relation to the Government being nervous of the CWU. Well, that is self-delution par excellance. This Government has no time for the Trade Unions, never has had and never will have. Irrespective of a meeting with the Conservative member of Parliament for Wantage, Ed Davey, and for good measure, a pretty low rank minister, the coalition is sitting pretty with a comfortable working majority. Believe me, it is the CWU who should be nervous, not vice-versa.

The CWU made a shocking error taking industrial action last autumn. Contrary, to what you say, we achieved next to nothing. Slowly but surely, the management are pile driving nasty reforms into the system. In the mail centre I work in, the job has become three times harder in a very short space of time. What annoys me the most is the obsession the bosses have with figures, performance targets and the suchlike. They can trigger bonuses for themselves by achieving these targets, which is the underlying reason for their enthusiasm. The staff have too much of a burden placed upon them. The CWU and the management rushed through an agreement which is poor to say the least and as for the Union, they have not a shread of credibility with the general public after that worthless strike. Badly timed, badly handled and it played right into the hands of the Tories.

We go back to 2003 when agreements for DSA were signed by Adam Crozier. In 2010, it is now the most dominant feature of mail centres across the country. I do not recall the CWU making a song and dance about allowing our competitors into the Royal Mail back in 2003. We should have taken Postcomm on there and then over this act of lunacy which gave our income streams a real hiding. I welcome competition, not signing up to financial suicide as Crozier did. It really does highlight the dreadful management which the Royal Mail has been saddled with for longer than I can remember.

The pension deficit is an almighty problem for us. Currently standing at 8.3 billion, it is an unbelievable figure, most of it attributed to the events of September 11th 2001 when the financial markets collapsed in the aftermath of those evil terrorist attacks on the United States. Pension schemes worldwide soon became 'not worth the paper they are written on'. We are not alone in having to deal with this problem, even not withstanding, the banking sector inflicting more difficulties on the financial markets with their atrocious display of greed in 2008. I am not confident about the Royal Mail pension scheme being sustainable in the long term. The debt is too great and the company is not in the best of financial shape anyway. You are correct when you make the point about our our profits in relation to turnover. They are disapointing and will not get much better any day soon.

In many respects, I am facing up to the reality, like many friends and colleagues, my days of working for what I believe is still the best postal service in the world are fast drawing to a close. Some call it 'marking time', I prefer to think of it as 'if only'. In all the years I have worked for the Royal Mail, the last 12 months have been the most difficult of all. The most noticeable feature has been the management or should I say mis-management. They have shown themselves to be completely devoid of ideas, initatives and the concerted purpose to latch upon to a set of principles to help us compete in a red-hot marketplace. All in all, they are in it entirely for their own ends. Yes, it really is a case of 'if only'!

We agree to disagree.

Regards

Bobbyden