Labour leadership rejects Royal Mail renationalisation calls

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5a10640-25dc ... edition=uk#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Labour leadership has rebuffed union-inspired votes by its annual conference to renationalise Royal Mail and the railways.

Delegates in Brighton passed unanimously a motion by the Communication Workers Union calling for an incoming Labour government to take the postal operator back into public ownership if the coalition succeeds in privatising it this autumn.

But a senior party figure told the Financial Times it would be “totally irresponsible” to commit itself to spending an unknown sum on renationalising Royal Mail when times were tough.

Party leaders also dismissed the idea of renationalising the railways after the conference backed a motion by the Transport Salaried Staffs Association calling for this.

An official said: “Renationalisation is not our policy. Conference is entitled to its view. We are going to do the right thing. We are not going to spend money we do not have.”

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, told delegates a Labour government could pay off any repurchase price within a few years from Royal Mail’s profits.

“If it falls into the hands of private companies there will be an increase in prices for all the companies, all the small businesses and consumers who use this network,” he said. “Keeping our postal service will make a major contribution and avoid further rises in a cost of living crisis.”

He said the coalition was “offering bribes to investors. Already, before a single share has been sold they are offering a £400m dividend – £200m in 2014, £200m in 2015.”

Mr Hayes said Royal Mail could double its profit in a few years, which could be invested in schools and hospitals.

Katy Clark, Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, backed the call, saying that privatisation would be a “disaster”.

The coalition aims to float at least 41 per cent of Royal Mail on the stock exchange over the next few weeks, with a further 10 per cent of shares to be given free to staff.

Labour planned to sell 30 per cent of Royal Mail when it was in government, but dropped the idea when faced with few buyers and backbench opposition. Now it opposes privatisation.

Tosh McDonald, vice-president of the train drivers’ union Aslef, said it was “a nonsense” that most of the railways remained in private ownership, and said that higher fares should not subsidise investment in the network.

He also urged Mr Miliband to consider renationalising other public services such as the power sector and water companies, adding that Labour should not be afraid to talk about taking key privatised industries back into public ownership.

The TSSA motion urged a future Labour government to extend the public ownership seen on the East Coast service “to each franchise as it expires and by integrating track and train operations”.

[LinChong]

UK governments can't control share prices and the Labour government will be forced to re-nationalise Royal Mail when the share price plummets.

Profits are at their maximum now. To increase the current profit level and provide a return for investors, management will have to break agreements to cut labour costs. Bridgewater is an example of what will happen if management don't back down. The CWU will never make a no strike agreement, Moya will be sent packing, the share price will drop through the floor and investors will put pressure on the government to buy back the shares.

The Labour leadership should do what conference says and make a commitment to re-nationalise Royal Mail. If re-nationalisation happens after the election and the Labour government are forced to buy back the shares and re-nationalise Royal Mail, they will be able to pay out less and save the country some money by telling the speculators they were warned so they have to take the hit.

[Dee Plish]

This is where the Labour establishment and our CWU must part company.

Labour talks of another debate on privatisation in Parliament which will change nothing.

The mere threat of re-nationalising Royal Mail should it be privatised would cause the institutional investors (alongside a yes vote from us) to run a mile from buying RM shares. That would scupper the sale. Result for us and the retention of a proper public postal service for our customers.

Labour's establishment (not its activists it must be said) has pooed on us again from a great height to pander to middle Englander respectability / pleasing the media when they could have really made a difference to our cause.

I will never vote Labour again. My political levy is stopped. I live in a Labour ward & constituency. My vote is gone forever. Cowardly mercenary self-serving unprincipled ignorant clueless bastards.

[ronpetetrevchris]

Never get my vote again, i am now partly-less

[philippo]

Solidarity, no chance. We should all put pressure on the executive to break the link with labour now. I will be asking our branch at the anti-Tory demo here in Manchester on Sunday to disaffiliate asap. The greens and left unity maybe one way forward, labour is not.

[left739]

I saw this in a Guardian blog:

But Ed Mililband will not be taking any notice. A senior party source has made it clear that he is only taking this "Red Ed" stuff only so far (my paraphrase). This is what the source said.

Renationalisation is not our policy. Conference is entitled to its view but we are going to do the right thing. We are not going to spend money we do not have.

The fact is that by repudiating the conference decision the labour leadership has meant it will not have any real effect (it was said that a committment to renationalise would have spooked investors and sunk the flotation) Even though the resolution isn't worth the paper its written on I think the CWU leadership will use it as reason why it is worth still pouring money at the Labour party.

[Tman]

Fantasy ideas about possible future renationalisation wouldn't spook the financial institution investors such as pension funds etc anyway. They're in investments for the long haul and if Joe Bloggs from the corner shop doesn't buy his speculative minimum quick-hundred-quid amount then there's more available at a cheaper price for them. They know the value will rise over time regardless.
Should the unimaginable happen and a future Labour government find itself with several £billion going spare AND the political will to renationalise RM, the financial institutions know they'll be well recompensed for their shares, so either way they can't lose.
The perfect scenario for them would be a long all-out strike over the privatisation schedule as that would both dismay potential "little " investors, and allow the new buyers to be portrayed as the "saviours" of RM in the face of the bone-idle commie posties for the Sun, Mail and Express readers.
Another little trap the CWU are just bound to fall in to.

[left739]

I haven't be on this site for a while so maybe these things have been talked about. However I think you are dead wrong that a Labour pledge to renationalise would not impact the flotation. Look at how Labour's talk of a freeze on energy prices has hit the shares of the energy companies. As Nils Partley the Guardian Financial editor wrote about the privatisation:

Instead, privatisation has acquired an air of inevitability over two decades as both Conservative and Labour administrations have attempted the feat. Politicians' understandable desire to run away from poisonous industrial relations is one reason; envy of a successful privatised Deutsche Post is another. But the irony is that the commercial case for a sale has rarely looked weaker than it does today.

Don't doubt, though, that the government will get its wish. The threat of strike action is unlikely to undermine the float – City investors would only be scared if Labour was threatening re-nationalisation, and it isn't. And the shares, inevitably, will be priced to go. Annual dividend payments will start at £200m, said Royal Mail, which implies a dividend yield of 7% if the equity is priced at £2.75bn. There will be buyers.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/nil ... inevitable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The by no means left wing Andrew Neil confirms Pratley's point. Look at this clip from BBC - he says to Labour's shadow business secretary- Chuka Umanna - that sources in the City tell him that a labour threat of renationalisation would mean that they probably would not even have to do so because the flotation would fail. Chuka Umanna refuses the offer (skip forward to 13.10):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xlf1PLxtFY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Umunna's words about being "fiscally responsible" is him saying that a Labour government would be a safe pair of hands for the City which means continuing austerity and attacks on ordinary people's living standards.

Anyway I expect nothing else from the Labour party. They have shown over the last twenty years that they are a party which has the interests of the rich and big business at heart. What did they do for posties when they were in power? They introduced competition forcing royal Mail to carry competitors mail at a loss until those companies had established themselves and could start to deliver the "last mile" (where they find it profitable) and in the dying days of their government they tried to privatise.

With politicians like those in charge of all the major parties, we have to trust in ourselves. A big "yes" vote and strike action may not prevent privatisation but it will secure a better deal and give us confidence in resisting the attacks that lie further down the line.

[Danelectro]

So whats the official CWU response to the Labour Leadership selling them down the river?

[fishtank]

So whats the official CWU response to the Labour Leadership selling them down the river?

Stick their fingers in their ears and carry on regardless....

No.646/13

Ref: GS11.0

Date: 27 September 2013

To: All Branches

Dear Colleague

ROYAL MAIL PRIVATISATION: LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE 2013

Further to LTB 598/13, 590/13 & 537/13, we bring you an update on the events at the Labour Party Conference 2013.

As a result of the activity of the CWU at all levels, we were successful in ensuring the CWU Contemporary Motions were admitted to the Labour Party Conference 2013.

There were 46 local Constituency Labour Parties who supported the motion. This was the biggest number of CLP submissions. The NHS received 19. It was the 4th highest in the Trade Union category and 5th among CLPs.

Our motion was debated on Wednesday 25th September. It was carried unanimously by the Conference.

The union also held a packed fringe meeting on Monday 23rd September which was addressed by Katy Clarke MP, Ian Murray MP, the Shadow Business Secretary, George Thomson, General Secretary of NFSP, Billy Hayes, GS and Dave Ward, DGS (P).

The union will be taking forward the policy through and up to the Manifesto process.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be directed to the General Secretary's Office at gsoffice@cwu.org or telephone 0208 971 7251.

Yours sincerely

W Hayes D Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)