Postal staff threaten to strike over sell-off plans

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Postal staff threaten to strike over Royal Mail sell-off plans they claim are 'bad for customers and bad for Britain'

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The privatisation of the Royal Mail will be ‘bad for customers and bad for Britain’ and it ‘will not work’, union bosses warned today.

In a call to arms, they are plotting ‘any campaign required to oppose the privatisation’, such as strike action.

The Government is the only shareholder in Royal Mail, but a flotation on the stock market is expected, possibly this autumn.

Even Margaret Thatcher opposed the privatisation, saying she was ‘not prepared to have the Queen’s head privatised.’

In a speech in Bournemouth on Monday, Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, said: ‘Privatisation of Royal Mail will not work.

Speaking at the union’s annual conference, he added: ‘Ask the people of Argentina, who had their postal service privatised, who were advised by Royal Mail. It was a flop. The Argentine government had to re-nationalise.’

Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, warned the privatisation of Royal Mail will be ‘a disaster’.

She warned previous sell-offs in the rail and utility sectors have led to higher train fares, rocketing energy bills and gold-plated pay packages for the bosses.

Since privatisation plans were unveiled, the price of a first-class stamp has jumped from 46p to 60p, some parcel prices have jumped by more than 100 per cent and a £9.5billion pension black hole has been dumped on the taxpayer.

Miss O’Grady said: ‘We will not stand by and see services cut and workers walked over.

‘Just so there’s no confusion, let me be clear. The TUC will back the CWU all the way [to oppose privatisation in all possible ways].’
Miss O’Grady said the Government could not ‘fool’ the public into believing that selling off the Royal Mail was in the public interest.
She said: ‘The public know better. Prices would rocket, small businesses suffer, rural communities abandoned.

‘The evidence is clear - privatisation is bad for workers, bad for customers and bad for Britain.’

It comes as the TUC will meet tomorrow [wed24] to discuss plans, proposed by Unite, Britain’s biggest union, for the first general strike for more than 80 years.

Postal workers will also debate at the CWU conference today whether or not to boycott the handling of any mail which has not used Royal Mail.

Around one in two letters delivered through your letterbox have been handled by one of Royal Mail’s rivals. Royal Mail is only responsible for the ‘final mile’ of the delivery.


Companies such as BT, Thames Water, E.On, Sky, Barclays, Npower, O2 and Talk Talk currently use the postal giant’s rivals to handle all or some of their mail.

A third round of strikes will take place among up to 4,000 staff at Post Offices on Monday over plans to close or franchise 76 of its large Crown post offices.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: ‘The Government has made it clear it does not have the capital itself to invest in Royal Mail.
‘It wants that capital to come from the private sector.’

A Department for Business spokesman said: ‘Regardless of ownership, Royal Mail will provide the universal postal service with six-day per week delivery and collection at uniform and affordable prices.'