Communication Workers Union leaders hail completion of Kretinsky’s EP Group buyout of Royal Mail

[stage3]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Seconded. Just constant depressionism. Akin to a reign of terror by the nazis. A constant bombardment of nastiness.

A few posts on here are now "akin to the reign of terror by the nazis". Really. Moon71 is the definition of unhinged, posting this at 03.59 in the morning. Not only is this a filthy smear against the PWRFC and WSWS but it also makes light of the crimes of fascism. No accident that, as the only one with form when its comes the the far-right is Moon71.

[richietns]

I honestly don't believe we should be selling off critical parts of our infrastructure to any foreign investor. It's not just about security but about long term public accountability and service. Kretinsky keeps his cards very close to his chest so there will be conspiracy theories but he has generally presented himself as an opportunistic investor focussed on turning around undervalued European assets. And imho the only reason why he wants to take over our business now is because of the USO reforms (he initially wanted to honour the USO for just 5 years) and as most of our infrastructure is primarily built around letters; these assets could be sold off for ££££ along with thousands of postal workers jobs. There are guarantees of no compulsory redundancies until Ofcom's review of the USO next year.

Unfortunately, everyone (Ofcom, the CWU, postal workers) have been taken in by Seidenberg's comments about it not being sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering 7 billion. But that has been exacerbated by RM's long term strategy of managing the decline by jacking up postage prices than anything else. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy by making sending letters expensive so that fewer people use it and then argue that it is no longer viable. RM are likely to save millions as a result of watering down the letters business but once that revenue stream has almost dried up, what do we have left? The parcels market is super competitive with the likes of Amazon, DPD and Evri squeezing the margins hard and there is a big risk that RM becomes yet another low margin courier with no real unique selling point.

There won't be any massive profits in the company in the next few years either because DK has borrowed billions to buy the company and is already investing millions in a network of parcel lockers. Even if the business is streamlined and profits emerge - they will go towards servicing the debts and returning value to its investor first and foremost - its classic private equity playbook stuff.

Almost every function of our lives is in the hands of capitalists from all over the world. Lets talk about the French capitalists ripping us off for nuclear power. Or we could discuss the Australians bankrupting the water suppliers. Capitalism has no race, colour or creed. The buyout is nothing to do with nstionalities and is everything to do with converting £5 billion of debt into hard cash that can be taken out of the industry. They may not get the whole lot but they will get money for nothing. Debt is just numbers on their spreadsheets. The gamble is just how much of that £5 billion can be made into real money before it goes tits up.

Postal workers have not been taken in. Those who claim to speak for postal workers have, like the CWU. There will be no changes to the very basic operation of the postal industry - the infrastructure is already here and the likes of Amazon exploit it every day because they cannot and will not create a matching infrastructure. 7 billion letters will not be delivering themselves. That fact is proven by the failure to deliver the legal requirements of the universal service now.

The postal industry is a cartel dominated by only a few players. The capitalists have a golden rule - don't attack each other. They will do nothing to risk their profits. Driving each other into the ground is not their plan. Driving us into the ground is.

All of this is easily stopped. Our politicians enforce the law and maintain the USO as it is. If the industry can't live with that then it gets renationalised.

Give me capitalism over communism any day.

[moon71]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Seconded. Just constant depressionism. Akin to a reign of terror by the nazis. A constant bombardment of nastiness.

A few posts on here are now "akin to the reign of terror by the nazis". Really. Moon71 is the definition of unhinged, posting this at 03.59 in the morning. Not only is this a filthy smear against the PWRFC and WSWS but it also makes light of the crimes of fascism. No accident that, as the only one with form when its comes the the far-right is Moon71.

We've been through the meaning of bigot before. The unscrupulous canvassing of hatred with choice language and barraging sustainment of vile and hostility towards our employer an union is unprecedented. That's bigotry.

People see it for what it is, but i still ask, what do you have to offer? Obviously you'll just turn it around with no answers, again, or belittle like always.

It's just a forum. If you want to make a rival union, do it. But just don't sit here peddling hatred and then do nothing.

And no, I don't want to be in a tea club full of tears. And let's be honest, the zoom meetings are like a cult brain washing session.

End the debate, and do something, offer something, anything.

Been waiting months.

[scotchy1962]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Seconded. Just constant depressionism. Akin to a reign of terror by the nazis. A constant bombardment of nastiness.

A few posts on here are now "akin to the reign of terror by the nazis". Really. Moon71 is the definition of unhinged, posting this at 03.59 in the morning. Not only is this a filthy smear against the PWRFC and WSWS but it also makes light of the crimes of fascism. No accident that, as the only one with form when its comes the the far-right is Moon71.

The world is littered with the remains of failed so called communist regimes, the only ones that survive are places where the workers are well and truly down trodden and the leaders live like capitalist billionaires.
What time he posts at is sort of immaterial, what he says does have some foundation, you don't like it.
Says it all really.

[tramssirhc]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

The rank and file have no leaders and need no leaders. We do it for ourselves. Our jobs are affected by geo-politics. Indeed, the CWU like to focus on the nationality of individuals thereby dog-whistling to the gallery instead of attack the real issue - renationslisation. Workers and the working class are rightly proud of the Bolsheviks and their struggle. Indeed the capitalists and bosses were so scared of the potential in working class revolutions they called us 'bolshie'. I'll wear bolshie with pride.

What's happening in the postal industry is geo-political. The bosses are from all over the world. The bosses are using techniques from all over the world to destroy our jobs. The decline, pressure and erosion is driven by the global capitalists. Workers know that and want to discuss that. We always have.

[tramssirhc]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

That's patent nonsense. Look up postal workers on the WSWS/SEP website.

[tramssirhc]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Just like the CWU

Well don't know where your hiding but they at least try.as for pwrfc absolutely nothing.

The CWU doesn't try at all. Members experience their efforts everyday and are suffering as a result.

[tramssirhc]

I honestly don't believe we should be selling off critical parts of our infrastructure to any foreign investor. It's not just about security but about long term public accountability and service. Kretinsky keeps his cards very close to his chest so there will be conspiracy theories but he has generally presented himself as an opportunistic investor focussed on turning around undervalued European assets. And imho the only reason why he wants to take over our business now is because of the USO reforms (he initially wanted to honour the USO for just 5 years) and as most of our infrastructure is primarily built around letters; these assets could be sold off for ££££ along with thousands of postal workers jobs. There are guarantees of no compulsory redundancies until Ofcom's review of the USO next year.

Unfortunately, everyone (Ofcom, the CWU, postal workers) have been taken in by Seidenberg's comments about it not being sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering 7 billion. But that has been exacerbated by RM's long term strategy of managing the decline by jacking up postage prices than anything else. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy by making sending letters expensive so that fewer people use it and then argue that it is no longer viable. RM are likely to save millions as a result of watering down the letters business but once that revenue stream has almost dried up, what do we have left? The parcels market is super competitive with the likes of Amazon, DPD and Evri squeezing the margins hard and there is a big risk that RM becomes yet another low margin courier with no real unique selling point.

There won't be any massive profits in the company in the next few years either because DK has borrowed billions to buy the company and is already investing millions in a network of parcel lockers. Even if the business is streamlined and profits emerge - they will go towards servicing the debts and returning value to its investor first and foremost - its classic private equity playbook stuff.

Almost every function of our lives is in the hands of capitalists from all over the world. Lets talk about the French capitalists ripping us off for nuclear power. Or we could discuss the Australians bankrupting the water suppliers. Capitalism has no race, colour or creed. The buyout is nothing to do with nstionalities and is everything to do with converting £5 billion of debt into hard cash that can be taken out of the industry. They may not get the whole lot but they will get money for nothing. Debt is just numbers on their spreadsheets. The gamble is just how much of that £5 billion can be made into real money before it goes tits up.

Postal workers have not been taken in. Those who claim to speak for postal workers have, like the CWU. There will be no changes to the very basic operation of the postal industry - the infrastructure is already here and the likes of Amazon exploit it every day because they cannot and will not create a matching infrastructure. 7 billion letters will not be delivering themselves. That fact is proven by the failure to deliver the legal requirements of the universal service now.

The postal industry is a cartel dominated by only a few players. The capitalists have a golden rule - don't attack each other. They will do nothing to risk their profits. Driving each other into the ground is not their plan. Driving us into the ground is.

All of this is easily stopped. Our politicians enforce the law and maintain the USO as it is. If the industry can't live with that then it gets renationalised.

Give me capitalism over communism any day.

Which communism? Millions of people live very happy lives under different types of communist theory. Many of these people have better lives than people living in neo-liberal hyper capitalist societies.

[tramssirhc]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Seconded. Just constant depressionism. Akin to a reign of terror by the nazis. A constant bombardment of nastiness.

A few posts on here are now "akin to the reign of terror by the nazis". Really. Moon71 is the definition of unhinged, posting this at 03.59 in the morning. Not only is this a filthy smear against the PWRFC and WSWS but it also makes light of the crimes of fascism. No accident that, as the only one with form when its comes the the far-right is Moon71.

We've been through the meaning of bigot before. The unscrupulous canvassing of hatred with choice language and barraging sustainment of vile and hostility towards our employer an union is unprecedented. That's bigotry.

People see it for what it is, but i still ask, what do you have to offer? Obviously you'll just turn it around with no answers, again, or belittle like always.

It's just a forum. If you want to make a rival union, do it. But just don't sit here peddling hatred and then do nothing.

And no, I don't want to be in a tea club full of tears. And let's be honest, the zoom meetings are like a cult brain washing session.

End the debate, and do something, offer something, anything.

Been waiting months.

How would Moon71 know anything about the 'zoom' meetings. Has Moon71 actually been on one?

[scotchy1962]

I honestly don't believe we should be selling off critical parts of our infrastructure to any foreign investor. It's not just about security but about long term public accountability and service. Kretinsky keeps his cards very close to his chest so there will be conspiracy theories but he has generally presented himself as an opportunistic investor focussed on turning around undervalued European assets. And imho the only reason why he wants to take over our business now is because of the USO reforms (he initially wanted to honour the USO for just 5 years) and as most of our infrastructure is primarily built around letters; these assets could be sold off for ££££ along with thousands of postal workers jobs. There are guarantees of no compulsory redundancies until Ofcom's review of the USO next year.

Unfortunately, everyone (Ofcom, the CWU, postal workers) have been taken in by Seidenberg's comments about it not being sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering 7 billion. But that has been exacerbated by RM's long term strategy of managing the decline by jacking up postage prices than anything else. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy by making sending letters expensive so that fewer people use it and then argue that it is no longer viable. RM are likely to save millions as a result of watering down the letters business but once that revenue stream has almost dried up, what do we have left? The parcels market is super competitive with the likes of Amazon, DPD and Evri squeezing the margins hard and there is a big risk that RM becomes yet another low margin courier with no real unique selling point.

There won't be any massive profits in the company in the next few years either because DK has borrowed billions to buy the company and is already investing millions in a network of parcel lockers. Even if the business is streamlined and profits emerge - they will go towards servicing the debts and returning value to its investor first and foremost - its classic private equity playbook stuff.

Almost every function of our lives is in the hands of capitalists from all over the world. Lets talk about the French capitalists ripping us off for nuclear power. Or we could discuss the Australians bankrupting the water suppliers. Capitalism has no race, colour or creed. The buyout is nothing to do with nstionalities and is everything to do with converting £5 billion of debt into hard cash that can be taken out of the industry. They may not get the whole lot but they will get money for nothing. Debt is just numbers on their spreadsheets. The gamble is just how much of that £5 billion can be made into real money before it goes tits up.

Postal workers have not been taken in. Those who claim to speak for postal workers have, like the CWU. There will be no changes to the very basic operation of the postal industry - the infrastructure is already here and the likes of Amazon exploit it every day because they cannot and will not create a matching infrastructure. 7 billion letters will not be delivering themselves. That fact is proven by the failure to deliver the legal requirements of the universal service now.

The postal industry is a cartel dominated by only a few players. The capitalists have a golden rule - don't attack each other. They will do nothing to risk their profits. Driving each other into the ground is not their plan. Driving us into the ground is.

All of this is easily stopped. Our politicians enforce the law and maintain the USO as it is. If the industry can't live with that then it gets renationalised.

Give me capitalism over communism any day.

Which communism? Millions of people live very happy lives under different types of communist theory. Many of these people have better lives than people living in neo-liberal hyper capitalist societies.

Hmmm i am gonna call bullshit on that statement, tell me which regime that would be?
I fancy you actually think the people who still live in these countries are happy enough, i doubt it very much. They know that if they don't toe the line they will end up in prison or six feet under so they stay under sufferance.
And as for living better lives? I wouldn't even dignify that daft statement with a answer.

[tramssirhc]

I honestly don't believe we should be selling off critical parts of our infrastructure to any foreign investor. It's not just about security but about long term public accountability and service. Kretinsky keeps his cards very close to his chest so there will be conspiracy theories but he has generally presented himself as an opportunistic investor focussed on turning around undervalued European assets. And imho the only reason why he wants to take over our business now is because of the USO reforms (he initially wanted to honour the USO for just 5 years) and as most of our infrastructure is primarily built around letters; these assets could be sold off for ££££ along with thousands of postal workers jobs. There are guarantees of no compulsory redundancies until Ofcom's review of the USO next year.

Unfortunately, everyone (Ofcom, the CWU, postal workers) have been taken in by Seidenberg's comments about it not being sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering 7 billion. But that has been exacerbated by RM's long term strategy of managing the decline by jacking up postage prices than anything else. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy by making sending letters expensive so that fewer people use it and then argue that it is no longer viable. RM are likely to save millions as a result of watering down the letters business but once that revenue stream has almost dried up, what do we have left? The parcels market is super competitive with the likes of Amazon, DPD and Evri squeezing the margins hard and there is a big risk that RM becomes yet another low margin courier with no real unique selling point.

There won't be any massive profits in the company in the next few years either because DK has borrowed billions to buy the company and is already investing millions in a network of parcel lockers. Even if the business is streamlined and profits emerge - they will go towards servicing the debts and returning value to its investor first and foremost - its classic private equity playbook stuff.

Almost every function of our lives is in the hands of capitalists from all over the world. Lets talk about the French capitalists ripping us off for nuclear power. Or we could discuss the Australians bankrupting the water suppliers. Capitalism has no race, colour or creed. The buyout is nothing to do with nstionalities and is everything to do with converting £5 billion of debt into hard cash that can be taken out of the industry. They may not get the whole lot but they will get money for nothing. Debt is just numbers on their spreadsheets. The gamble is just how much of that £5 billion can be made into real money before it goes tits up.

Postal workers have not been taken in. Those who claim to speak for postal workers have, like the CWU. There will be no changes to the very basic operation of the postal industry - the infrastructure is already here and the likes of Amazon exploit it every day because they cannot and will not create a matching infrastructure. 7 billion letters will not be delivering themselves. That fact is proven by the failure to deliver the legal requirements of the universal service now.

The postal industry is a cartel dominated by only a few players. The capitalists have a golden rule - don't attack each other. They will do nothing to risk their profits. Driving each other into the ground is not their plan. Driving us into the ground is.

All of this is easily stopped. Our politicians enforce the law and maintain the USO as it is. If the industry can't live with that then it gets renationalised.

Give me capitalism over communism any day.

Which communism? Millions of people live very happy lives under different types of communist theory. Many of these people have better lives than people living in neo-liberal hyper capitalist societies.

Hmmm i am gonna call bullshit on that statement, tell me which regime that would be?
I fancy you actually think the people who still live in these countries are happy enough, i doubt it very much. They know that if they don't toe the line they will end up in prison or six feet under so they stay under sufferance.
And as for living better lives? I wouldn't even dignify that daft statement with a answer.

If you have ever visited countries with different social and economical structures you will know that people live the life they want. Your description of the unidentified countries where people are suffering could easily be your own. There is no worse treatment of the working class than the treatment dished out in the 'United Kingdom' or the 'United States of America'. Its naive to think otherwise.

[scotchy1962]

Man you are delusional and really have no idea how the other half really live.
Have you been to these places? I have travelled the world and seen at close hand how they do live, it's not some sort of far left utopia, it's a place where they live in fear without the freedom that you and i enjoy to express their views. You know that freedom you express on here that in North Korea/China/Russia... you name it, would have you re-educated or worse!
I have no idea if you are the chief spokesman but before you spout your left wing diatribe have a think about it.

[postslippete]

The rank and file have no leaders and need no leaders. We do it for ourselves. Our jobs are affected by geo-politics. Indeed, the CWU like to focus on the nationality of individuals thereby dog-whistling to the gallery instead of attack the real issue - renationslisation. Workers and the working class are rightly proud of the Bolsheviks and their struggle. Indeed the capitalists and bosses were so scared of the potential in working class revolutions they called us 'bolshie'. I'll wear bolshie with pride.

What's happening in the postal industry is geo-political. The bosses are from all over the world. The bosses are using techniques from all over the world to destroy our jobs. The decline, pressure and erosion is driven by the global capitalists. Workers know that and want to discuss that. We always have.

Without clear leadership, coordination, responsibility or any strategy in place this rank and file "movement" is basically just a few loony lefties hoping to kick-start a socialist revolution from the internet in their bedrooms. Good luck with that.

[moon71]

Dear rank-and-file leaders,

You will probably get more support if you focus on the immediate issues that we are all facing - the attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions - without drifting into debates about geopolitical topics like China, Russia and Iran which may serve to confuse or alienate people. We are not part of the Bolshevik Revolution and seeking to overthrow the government in a coup d'etat - we are just concerned about what's happening in Royal Mail, namely the decline of our service, the pressure on our workloads and the erosion of our rights.

Doubt they will as they never reveal anything about there aims to help postal workers despite being asked on here many times.

Seconded. Just constant depressionism. Akin to a reign of terror by the nazis. A constant bombardment of nastiness.

A few posts on here are now "akin to the reign of terror by the nazis". Really. Moon71 is the definition of unhinged, posting this at 03.59 in the morning. Not only is this a filthy smear against the PWRFC and WSWS but it also makes light of the crimes of fascism. No accident that, as the only one with form when its comes the the far-right is Moon71.

We've been through the meaning of bigot before. The unscrupulous canvassing of hatred with choice language and barraging sustainment of vile and hostility towards our employer an union is unprecedented. That's bigotry.

People see it for what it is, but i still ask, what do you have to offer? Obviously you'll just turn it around with no answers, again, or belittle like always.

It's just a forum. If you want to make a rival union, do it. But just don't sit here peddling hatred and then do nothing.

And no, I don't want to be in a tea club full of tears. And let's be honest, the zoom meetings are like a cult brain washing session.

End the debate, and do something, offer something, anything.

Been waiting months.

How would Moon71 know anything about the 'zoom' meetings. Has Moon71 actually been on one?

Yes.

And by the way, referring to me as right wing is simply wrong. Comments like that are just used to smear as always. I'm a labour supporter.

And again please, what exactly does the PWRFC want. OK to set up teaclubs and zoom meeting, then what? Negotiate on our behalf, all out strike? Any answers to the life long question that we've been waiting months for.

Your responses show exactly why we need a CWU, because these PWRFC look amateur.

[postslippete]

Man you are delusional and really have no idea how the other half really live.
Have you been to these places? I have travelled the world and seen at close hand how they do live, it's not some sort of far left utopia, it's a place where they live in fear without the freedom that you and i enjoy to express their views. You know that freedom you express on here that in North Korea/China/Russia... you name it, would have you re-educated or worse!
I have no idea if you are the chief spokesman but before you spout your left wing diatribe have a think about it.

Spot on - we have freedoms here that people in many other parts of the world would die for. In some communist countries, like China or Russia, protesting or even criticising the government can lead to prison, torture or death!! At least here in the UK and in America we at least have some legal protections for free speech, protest and organising. So when I hear people say that they wear 'Bolshie' with pride - history has shown us that many revolutions didn't bring freedom - they just replaced one form of oppression with a new stricter authoritarian rule. History lesson over.