Ltb 664/15 - ROYAL MAIL - PRIVATISATION

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Letter to Branches





No. 664/15
Ref: GS11.0
13th October 2015
To: All CWU Branches


Dear Colleague

ROYAL MAIL - PRIVATISATION

The Government announced late yesterday that it had placed its final shareholding in Royal Mail with a number of city institutions to be sold overnight to institutional investors.

As explained with the previous 15% sale in June 2015, the process for concluding the sale was undertaken under the terms of the original Act of Parliament. As such this enabled the Government to proceed without any public or parliamentary scrutiny of their proposals.

The CWU has condemned the sale and made it clear that a fully privatised Royal Mail significantly increases the threat to the continuation of a 6 day delivery service to over 29 million UK addresses, something which the British public has enjoyed for over 350 years. A copy of the union’s press release is attached to this LTB.

In response to the disgraceful actions of the Government, it is now more important than ever for the union to secure stronger legislation for the protection of daily deliveries as a key part of our People’s Post Campaign, alongside continuing to campaign for renationalisation of Royal Mail under a Labour Government.

In the coming weeks, the union will be stepping up our activities and undertaking a series of communications with our members to highlight why their support for the union’s People’s Post Campaign is crucial to defending the service, their jobs, terms and conditions, whilst also helping shape the future of the postal industry.

As part of the final sell-off of its shares the Government gave employees an additional 1% in the company on the 5th October, and our understanding is that a further 1% will now be given to employees as a result of today’s announcement. We will provide further information on this once this has been confirmed. In the meantime, please ensure that this LTB is circulated to our members in all workplaces.

Any enquiries on the Government’s actions should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Department and any enquiries on the industrial impact should be addressed to the Deputy General Secretary (Postal).

Yours sincerely


Dave Ward Terry Pullinger
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)

Royal Mail final tranche sell-off “a disgrace” says CWU.
 
Responding to the Government’s announcement today (Monday) that its remaining shareholding in Royal Mail is to be sold, possibly within days, CWU general secretary Dave Ward branded the decision as “the clearest possible indictor of the Tories’ true colours”.
 
Dave added: “A week ago Jeremy Corbyn spoke to thousands of people calling on the government to protect the People’s Post at the CWU’s rally in Manchester - today the Government has announced they are selling the final public stake in Royal Mail to their friends in the City.
 
“This fire sale nails the lie that the Tories stand up for the interests of ordinary people. By their actions today they have made it abundantly clear that they are only interested in privatisation dogma and making the rich richer - even when their actions place public services at risk.
 
“The remaining government share in this profitable company should have been used to safeguard the public’s voice in Royal Mail and ensure the continuation of daily deliveries to every address in the country. The Tories have instead chosen and ideological course that puts the fundamental ethos of a centuries old national institution in jeopardy.
 
CWU deputy general secretary (postal) Terry Pullinger added: “Selling off the final 14 per cent of Royal Mail threatens the very existence of the one price goes anywhere, six day delivery service that is one of the great inventions of our social history.
 
“When the first part of this privatisation was completed by the Coalition we were told that this was because Royal Mail needed private capital to invest in its future, but if you ask the workforce they have seen hardly any new investment but have witnessed the worst type of short term investors making a killing without any regard to the long term future of the company or the services it provides to the public. 
 
“The CWU will continue to campaign against unfair competition and the race to the bottom, which privatisation inevitably brings.  Both existing, and any new shareholders should be in no doubt – any attempt to undermine our legally binding  agreements, terms and conditions, job security or the six day delivery Universal Service Obligation will be defended by us by all means possible including, if necessary, strike action.