The communication Workers Union [CWU] Waives the White Flag

[merson01]

The decision by the Communication Workers Union{CWU} to enter talks at the conciliation service ACAS is a clear indication that it is looking to end the strike and capitulate to the demands of the Royal Mail.

It is no accident that the attempt by the CWU to end this strike coincides with two inter-related developments: the crisis in the Tory party, which has all the hallmarks of a revolutionary crisis developing in Britain and the growing strike movement that is threatening to grow out of the control of the Labour party and trade union bureaucracy.

For the last six weeks, the CWU has sent numerous begging letters to Royal Mail management pleading to be lenient and negotiate with the union, only for Royal Mail to ignore their pleas, escalate executive actions, and threaten mass redundancies. The redundancies are a clear attempt to intimidate postal workers from taking further strike action. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has made it clear that it will not mobilise postal workers against Royal Mail's declaration of class warfare.

As Tony Robson points out, the union issued "an appeal for the Board to meet and discuss the union's "alternative business plan", framed as one offering greater profitability based on "utilising the competitive edge it has already in its deliveries to 32 million addresses across the country."

Royal Mail's agreement to talks is a ruse to buy more time to end strikes over the profitable Christmas period and to give the Tory government time to implement draconian anti-strike legalisation.

From the very first days of the strike, the union has put forward a pro-business agenda. David Ward, CWU leader, said shareholders were on the union's side, boasting on a Facebook meeting that the union had held secret talks with VESA, the same private equity firm pushing through massive attacks on postal workers' pay and conditions.

As for ACAS, the union is asking postal workers to put their faith in an anti-working class and pro-business organisation. It is not some independent organisation, but a mechanism used by big business to end strikes, as the Refuse workers in Coventry found to their cost[1]

The postal workers' dispute is now in danger and threatened directly by the CWU bureaucracy's corporatist strategy, posing the need for the rank and file to take charge. At every Royal Mail and Parcelforce depot, rank-and-file strike committees must be established to fight for the following:



· An inflation-busting pay award, with all future pay automatically indexed to the RPI inflation rate



· The immediate provision of strike pay for Royal Mail, BT and Openreach workers and Post Office workers to co-ordinate effective and sustained joint action



· No negotiations with Royal Mail until all mass redundancies are withdrawn and all executive action ended over the revision of terms and conditions. Any further talks are to be live-streamed.



· Reach out to Amazon workers who have launched wildcat action against sweatshop conditions in a united front of all delivery workers to defeat the race to the bottom



· Royal Mail and Amazon must be nationalised, their profits confiscated to meet pressing social needs and their operations placed under the democratic control of workers.






[1] ACAS sides with strike-breaking Coventry Labour council against refuse drivers-https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/0 ... e-m16.html

[enskied]

Well you spoke an awful lot of s**t there , best to get it off your chest .

[merson01]

A very well reasoned arguement. Time will tell who is right me or you

[derekm]

I think the socialist utopia you dream of mate is something that will never happen. sorry

[chickenwittle]

Well you spoke an awful lot of s**t there , best to get it off your chest .

Absolutely

[hans solo]

As for ACAS, the union is asking postal workers to put their faith in an anti-working class and pro-business organisation. It is not some independent organisation, but a mechanism used by big business to end strikes, as the Refuse workers in Coventry found to their cost[1]

i agree with the above going to acas is a bad move

[Bellaber]

Torygraph reporter

[1617mel]

Sorry merson, with all due respects, live and let live, your story is massively admirable, but if I may speak for the majority of us I think, we are a hard working lot and have many varying commitments , what we want is a fair outcome, on all aspects of our working conditions. The political side can be a very sensitive aspect of our demands for a fair outcome, my personal view is to let Ward and Co. Do their best for us, not all will be happy if an agreement is finally met. But it's the safest way I think for an outcome, support the CWU. And I do respect your story.

[ConeHater]

The use of the word ‘Waives’ is very confusing. Is it a typo, or a strange contradiction of use of a White Flag ?

[scoobydo79]

What utter sh1t

[Tman]

Copy and paste from the latest missive from the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Or was it the Workers Revolutionary Socialist party? Or maybe the World-Wide Socialist Party Congress?
Who cares? All pie-in-the-sky nonsense anyway.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Amazon must be nationalised

Not sure you can nationalise an international company.

All they need to do is pay a reasonable amount of Tax rather than use accounting methods to reduce their tax burden. But then I think the tax system needs simplification, but there are too many businesses either making money giving tax advice, or using the current loopholes and dodges, it will be difficult to get any major party to agree to it as it would affect their donations from big businesses.

[merson01]

When I wrote Waives the White Flag I meant that have not even bothered to raise a white flag in their haste to have talks. I will lay odds that that today's announcement will call off the strikes

[clashcityrocker]

I will lay odds that that today's announcement will call off the strikes

If it is I am forming a rank and file committee tomorrow. (Not working Sunday)

[Schiff]

Who is interested in this class warfare crap?

Time to grow up comrade.