Royal Mail privatisation: workers prepare to fight

[Socialist postie]

A contribution to the discussion in our union the CWU about how to defeat privatisation.

Royal Mail privatisation: workers prepare to fight
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By a CWU rep

Earlier this month, 500 full-time Communication Workers Union reps and officials, gathered in London for an emergency “policy forum”. They voted unanimously for a national strike ballot.

Pending further negotiations, the leadership is committed to doing so no later than September 2013. The CWU is on course for its first national strike since 2009, threatening to wreck the government’s plans to privatise Royal Mail.

General Secretary Billy Hayes and Deputy General Secretary-Postal Dave Ward sent a briefing to members on 26 July, explaining their aims and strategy. The union is demanding greater guarantees on jobs and conditions if privatisation goes ahead, but the question of a sell-off dominates the ballot’s other issues too – pay, pensions, workplace speedups, cuts and management bullying. In order to puff up profits for a sell-off, Royal Mail bosses have refused to even discuss a pay rise, despite profits having doubled, and insisted that workers accept cuts to their future pension. Rising workplace attacks are part of the same drive to prepare the company for privatisation.

Privatisation

Each of these issues alone would justify a national strike. But most reps and members, worried about future attacks under privatisation, are looking at the big picture and see a strike is a way of fending off privatisation, by making the company unsellable.

Privatisation will see Royal Mail’s new bosses slash services, hike stamp prices and attack the current workforce’s pay, pension, jobs and conditions. They will certainly try to flood the service with casualised staff, in a race to the bottom to compete with private sector rivals like the giant multinational TNT, which has just launched a delivery service in London with workers on zero hour contracts and wages far below those of Royal Mail staff.

Worse, privatisation will threaten the postal service itself, with huge pressure to water down the Universal Service Obligation at its heart – the guarantee of mail going everywhere in the UK for the same price, six days a week – as private companies say they can’t afford it.

Ministers, like Michael Fallon and Vince Cable, are trying to bribe postal workers with £2,000 in “free” shares – and threatening to take them away if there’s a strike and the sell-off on the stock market becomes impossible. That’s the real reason behind the propaganda blitz; it’s not just to fool workers, it’s a bluff – they are trying to convince postal workers not to strike, because they are terrified it will spoil the sell-off.

Postal workers can win

The moves so far for a strike are firmly down to pressure from below, with activists and more militant areas demanding the leadership organises a ballot. Ballot requests for local action have piled up and strikes and unofficial walkouts have taken place as anger deepened.

Many of us have learned the lessons of previous strikes in 2007 and 2009; stop-start strikes, rolling strikes, one-day actions all leave the initiative in the hands of the bosses, who organise scabbing operations and victimise our militants in between strikes, and full time officers, who call off strikes at the merest whiff of a court injunction or offer of secret “talks” in return for calling off the action. Why should we stagger our action, shifting the backlog in between strikes, just to call it all off when the strikes are beginning to strike.

All this indicates how important it is for rank and file postal workers, through electing their own strike committees, to control the strike from day one. It’s time for a new strategy.

If postal workers escalate the struggle to an all-out strike to defeat privatisation, they can save the postal service and their jobs and conditions with it. The hated coalition government would suffer a sharp defeat and possibly splinter, while it would be a huge boost to the trade union movement and all workers, including the one million on zero hour contracts.

The People’s Assemblies springing up around the country could play a really active role in building solidarity with the CWU action, like the miners’ solidarity committees did in the great 1984-85 strike. Dave Ward has called for a national demonstration on the first day of the strike. Great idea – let’s build for it.

CWU activists should campaign for the strike to be run as part of the wider class struggle, not a sectional dispute that is solely the property of union officials. We need a rank and file, unofficial “policy forum” of our own to discuss what form of strike action is needed – rolling, escalating or all-out to win – and what goals the strike should have. Most importantly, we need to work out how to watch our leaders and organise to take control of the dispute from below if necessary.

We call on all branches, activists and postie supporters – including those, like Bridgwater Delivery Office, already in dispute – who see the need to organise from below to support a national meeting to discuss the way forward and coordinate our efforts. As part of this process we propose the following.

A programme of action to stop privatisation

For a national strike against postal privatisation, uniting Royal Mail and Post Office workers
No delay – for an immediate ballot
Rapid escalation of the action up to and including an all-out strike to win – no suspension of the strike for negotiations; we can walk and talk at the same time
For a hardship fund – build the People’s Assembly movement for solidarity and to link up with other anti-cuts action against the government
No crossing picket lines – spread walkouts against victimisation and demand the CWU back them
No pension cuts – for an above inflation pay rise and £300 Christmas bonus
Scrap the Business Transformation Agreement where we “agree” office closures, job losses and “flexibility” – for the 35 hour week, sharing out the work with no loss of pay
Open up the books to see the real state of the mail sector, the company and what investment is needed – pay for it by taxing the rich and banks, not flogging Royal Mail off to them
Coordinate with other workers particularly Crown Post Office strikers – call on the TUC to say yes to a general strike to bring down the Tory-Lib Dem coalition
Reunite Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd under workers and consumers’ control – nationalise the private companies’ operations without compensation
For an environmentally sustainable postal sector: ban junk mail except those items in the public interest (e.g. health notices) – for massive investment in a non-carbon fuel burning fleet and zero-emissions offices
Build a real political alternative to Labour that fights privatisation and cuts, doesn’t adopt them – build Left Unity into a new workers’ party on a revolutionary anti-capitalist programme.

[Red Robbo]

Thank God those that write this aren't running the country, then again some Labour MPs are ex militant so it's already happened, is that why we were left in a mess after the last election ??!

[Chelseablue]

Miles better than the millionaire disgusting lot that are in now with no interest in the ordinary person on the street .

[CLINTEASTWOOD]

[Phantom]

Thank God those that write this aren't running the country, then again some Labour MPs are ex militant so it's already happened, is that why we were left in a mess after the last election ??!

The last labour government followed tory polices and didn't reverse anything except for Railtrack which changed to Network Rail after many deaths. So the anwser is, if we had more of the above then we would be fine but sadly we don't and thats why we are in a mess!

[jayed14]

I've just heard that rm are going to start the privatisation process in september, does this mean that the union has missed the boat as far as the strike ballot Is corncerned?

[mandelsons_toenail]

No

[Martin Walsh]

I've just heard that rm are going to start the privatisation process in september, does this mean that the union has missed the boat as far as the strike ballot Is corncerned?

No if we can't stop a partial sell off we can protect the members terms and conditions under a new ownership model. Who do you know who now joins British Telecom , British Gas , The Electricity Board , the Water industry ? On agency staff on inferior terms, that is the privatisation model create two tier workforce and then attack the terms of the best. A privitsatied industry will outsource work , franchise the operation in the requirement of profit at any cost.

Remember the current workload in a delivery office has only 47% of work which is linked to the USO !! The rest under a new owner could be outsourced to a cheaper operation something which all the other privitiased industries have seen. You hardly see a Britsh Gas van now you see Dyno Rod vans who cover for Britsh Gas. What if the new owner transfer the work which is not linked to the USO to TNT on £7.10 per hour and parcels to owner drivers, what would that do to jobs ?

This dispute is a first in the trade union movement and that is if you cannot stop privatisation and we will still be attempting this then to get such assurances on pay , job security , terms and conditions and work place issues which stop new owners from doing the same to postal workers as they did to telecom , water workers , Elec workers , Railway staff and the Gas workers.

Now it is likely the prospectus will be out either late this week or new week when we announce our strike action ballot timetable. There are further talks taking place in Windosr today and the rest of the week but the gap is much too big to lead to any settlement.

There will be union Comms going out this week to members home addresses.

The time for looking inwards is fast coming to an end. You will now have to very shortly make a decision are you willing tonight for a future ? Or are you going to accept worse terms and conditions , pensions and pay in the future ????

Over 100 thousand members will shortly make a descion which will decide their futures , fight and we will get a better agreement and a ballot will make any investor nervous or surrender that is the simple choice.

my confidence is that members will vote yes once they hear the real issues.

[borders]

RM will wait until they know the result of the ballot before remotely offering us a good deal, therefore it is imperative we get a very strong Yes vote. Dingo paints a very likely scenario of the future I believe, perhaps a small core workforce surrounded by Agency workers when need be [ happens already , the day after Bank Holidays for example ] and many more part - timers and outsourcing . unfortunately this is a low skilled job and they will look to lower their costs by slowly chipping away at our terms and conditions and removing the more expensive elements of the workforce. whatever the best deal that the Union can get , this will at least give the younger workforce the chance to look around and move on and for the older chaps its probably a case of .
reasonable jobs for ordinary people ruined ...... nice one.....

[Budfrog]

Reply moved

[borders]

wrong thread Bud , see Union ballot not a strike threat, says Royal Mail in News.

[Brain Fury]

I've just heard that rm are going to start the privatisation process in september, does this mean that the union has missed the boat as far as the strike ballot Is corncerned?

No if we can't stop a partial sell off we can protect the members terms and conditions under a new ownership model. Who do you know who now joins British Telecom , British Gas , The Electricity Board , the Water industry ? On agency staff on inferior terms, that is the privatisation model create two tier workforce and then attack the terms of the best. A privitsatied industry will outsource work , franchise the operation in the requirement of profit at any cost.

Remember the current workload in a delivery office has only 47% of work which is linked to the USO !! The rest under a new owner could be outsourced to a cheaper operation something which all the other privitiased industries have seen. You hardly see a Britsh Gas van now you see Dyno Rod vans who cover for Britsh Gas. What if the new owner transfer the work which is not linked to the USO to TNT on £7.10 per hour and parcels to owner drivers, what would that do to jobs ?

This dispute is a first in the trade union movement and that is if you cannot stop privatisation and we will still be attempting this then to get such assurances on pay , job security , terms and conditions and work place issues which stop new owners from doing the same to postal workers as they did to telecom , water workers , Elec workers , Railway staff and the Gas workers.


Now it is likely the prospectus will be out either late this week or new week when we announce our strike action ballot timetable. There are further talks taking place in Windosr today and the rest of the week but the gap is much too big to lead to any settlement.

There will be union Comms going out this week to members home addresses.

The time for looking inwards is fast coming to an end. You will now have to very shortly make a decision are you willing tonight for a future ? Or are you going to accept worse terms and conditions , pensions and pay in the future ????

Over 100 thousand members will shortly make a descion which will decide their futures , fight and we will get a better agreement and a ballot will make any investor nervous or surrender that is the simple choice.

my confidence is that members will vote yes once they hear the real issues.

Doesn't British Gas own Dyno-Rod? So it's hardly outsourcing. Why on earth would RM decide to "outsource" profitable business to one of it's competitors?

[Martin Walsh]

Why do companies outsource ? To increase profits. If a new owner moves mail from the most costly part of the operation which is the final mile which is not part of the USO and then gets it delivered cheaper on £7.10 per hour you don't think they would consider it ! Of course they will !

[Brain Fury]

Why do companies outsource ? To increase profits. If a new owner moves mail from the most costly part of the operation which is the final mile which is not part of the USO and then gets it delivered cheaper on £7.10 per hour you don't think they would consider it ! Of course they will !

Still not sure where TNT come into it. Companies don't outsource to competitors.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Why do companies outsource ? To increase profits. If a new owner moves mail from the most costly part of the operation which is the final mile which is not part of the USO and then gets it delivered cheaper on £7.10 per hour you don't think they would consider it ! Of course they will !

Still not sure where TNT come into it. Companies don't outsource to competitors.

Down stream access ?. Just today I delivered a city link package - isn't that outsourced.