Renationalise Royal Mail or lose millions in CWU donations

[POSTMAN]

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Renationalise Royal Mail or lose millions in donations, CWU tells Ed Miliband
Labour must agree to renationalise Royal Mail within three years of coming to power or lose millions in donations, postal unions say.

Members of the Communication Workers Union will debate a motion today at their annual conference which threatens to withdraw funds unless Labour agrees to write the commitment into the party’s 2015 election manifesto.

The Coalition Government is working hard to prepare for a partial sale of shares in Royal Mail as soon as September this year.

The motion “instructs the NEC [the CWU's National Executive Committee] that included in the next Labour Party manifesto there will be a clear and unequivocal commitment to support and defend a 100 per cent owned postal service”.

The CWU motion also wants “a clear and unequivocal commitment that following any privatisation, of any part of all of Royal Mail, the next Labour Government will renationalise it within the first three years of coming to power”.

It adds that "failure of the NEC to acheive these points in the next Labour Party manifesto will result in the CWU refusing to give any money towards the Labour Party general election campaign at any level of the CWU".


It will also organise a "a ballot of political fund members" on whether to break the CWU's links with Labour altogether.

Labour’s fund raising will suffer if the CWU goes through with its threat. In the past four quarters alone the union has donated £430,000 to Labour. In the three years since the 2010 general election, CWU donations to Labour have topped £1.8million.

Billy Hayes, the CWU’s general secretary, said: “Privatisation is an old-fashioned idea. We’ve seen it fail in areas such as the rail industry where prices have soared and safety standards and services to customers were left in disarray.

“Our conference will be re-stating the CWU’s opposition to the planned privatisation of Royal Mail which we don't believe is in the interests of customers, the workforce or the wider industry.

“We want a modern Royal Mail in full public ownership and able to deliver the universal service six days a week to all parts of the UK. We’ve had the full support of the Labour Party in that desire in the past and have no reason to believe that will not be so again.”

Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party’s Chairman said: “This is a big test for Ed Miliband. Will he let his union paymasters dictate Labour party policy? Under Ed Miliband Labour are only lurching to the left.”

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[UnhappyGremlin]

If Labour did put it into their manifesto, I think it would put most investors off from buying RM or shares. Would get Labour my vote too.
I agree with the union doing this, though don't know what effect, if any, it will have. I wait with baited breath.