CWU takes its campaign to the City

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news ... ull/135108" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sunday 07 July 2013 by Billy Hayes

The CWU continues to fight against the privatisation of Royal Mail. The 350-year-old institution is being touted around the City and to overseas investors with no thought to the respected public service it has delivered for so long. Other organisations are joining with CWU to stop the sale and there is disquiet among even Conservative ranks at the planned privatisation.

The company is profitable and has been through a modernisation programme that makes it fit for purpose in the public sector - but also fit to make a healthy profit for privateers who would seize the opportunity to break up a company and drive down service.

The government have been joined in its determination to sell the service by the company itself which has zealously sought out potential investors and argued against the merits of public ownership - a job it was appointed to carry out.

These interests are short term and represent vested interests, while the union continues to fight for the future of the mail service and is here for the long haul.

The company justifies its support for privatisation arguing that Royal Mail is crying out for investment.

As the profile of mail has changed, this is undoubtedly true.

The company now handles more parcels and packets every day and a decreasing number of letters.

It has no infrastructure to manage this growth in parcel traffic, but this has not stopped the chief executive or the government minister announcing that Royal Mail is now a parcels company that carries letters, rather than the reverse that it has been previously.

So it is true that investment is required to build an infrastructure and equip a willing workforce to deliver the growing number of parcels.

Mail is shifting towards providing for the surge in online buying.

As a result, the CWU does not quibble with the analysis that the company needs investment. Here the government, Royal Mail and the union agree fully.

Where we part company is the criteria that the government and the employer lay down to defend their decision to privatise - that Royal Mail can only borrow if it is in the private sector. This is simply not true.

Where it has suited this government to allow companies to borrow in the public sector, it has found a solution. Network Rail is a prime example. After being returned to public ownership, the government has given it the freedom to borrow on the open market.

Network Rail has borrowed over £20 billion while in public ownership but the government clings to a dogma that Royal Mail has to be sold to be allowed the same freedoms.

We are calling on the government to find a different way - to work with CWU and build a successful Royal Mail in public ownership.

There is no financial case to sell Britain's postal service. Neither is there a moral case for doing so.

In every public poll, the public have told the government they don't want their mail sold off.

Even more starkly, the workforce has just told both Royal Mail and the government that they don't agree with the sale.

In an independently recorded ballot, postal workers have just voted in a 75 per cent turnout, for a 96 per cent No to the sale.

Postal workers, the very people who know the industry better than anyone, have said the sale is a bad idea and they know the company can be successful in public ownership.

Just as many voted to declare the current competition arrangements as unfair, the union is calling on the regulator to make competition in the industry fairer and ensure private mail companies work to the same standards.

This week our union is taking our campaign to the heart of the City. All this week, you will see an open-top bus carrying postal workers, CWU members, around the City and the wider London area.

They will be carrying our strong message to potential investors and to the very banks who have been hired to sell the company.

The bus will tour the capital raising the profile of the sale to the public.

Postal workers will also be handing out postcards to the public asking them to send one to their own MP, telling them they aren't selling this great British service in their name.

Despite the passage of the Postal Services Act last year, there remains all to fight for to save our Royal Mail.

The government knows this isn't over and so does the company.

This is a fight worth having and you can help. Visit the campaign website, saveourroyalmail.org and get involved. There, you can sign an online petition that over 65,000 people have already signed and get a direct link to write to your MP.

Together we can still save our Royal Mail and protect a public postal service that is modern and successful but keeps public service at its heart.

Billy Hayes is general secretary of the CWU.