CWU calls for Cable to resign over Royal Mail mishandling

[Geezer]

CWU calls for Cable to resign over Royal Mail mishandling

http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/cwu-cal ... dling.html
24th October 2013

Following news that Royal Mail was valued at up to £10 billion by American bank JP Morgan - three times the float figure of £3.3bn - the Communication Workers Union is calling for Business Secretary Vince Cable to resign.

It has been reported that JP Morgan valued Royal Mail at between £7.75 and £9.95bn, while Citi Bank put an upper valuation of £7.3bn on the company and Deutsche Bank argued that Royal Mail could be worth between £6.4bn and £6.9bn. The government decided to float the company on a share price of 330 pence. Within a week the share price had broken the 500p mark - an increase of more than 50% - valuing the company at £1.7bn higher than the original government estimate and losing the taxpayer £900 million.

cwu__1381481987_photo.jpg

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: "On the opening day of the flotation Vince Cable wrote off the undervaluation as froth. A week later, we were told it was the fault of the CWU.

"We now have a prima facie case of a conspiracy against the UK taxpayer who were opposed to the sale and have now been robbed of billions.

"In any other walk of life this would be a sacking offence and we call on Vince Cable to resign.

"A full inquiry should be launched into the mis-handling of this unnecessary privatisation by Vince Cable.
We would also like the matter to be referred to the Public Accounts Committee to scrutinise how badly the taxpayer has been left out of pocket."

For more information on the industrial dispute visit Royal Mail strike.

cwu__1382024205_Royal_Mail_strike_banner.jpg

[UnhappyGremlin]

There is very little chance of Cable resigning.
To do this, it would require him to have a conscience, and admit the (rather huge and very obvious) mistake.

[Brain Fury]

What is this actually supposed the achieve?

[pinstripe]

What is this actually supposed the achieve?

That they, politicians, are accountable.

Or do you not think they should be?

[fishtank]

What is this actually supposed the achieve?

To be honest it's political which doesn't sit very well with me.
Not that I side with the coalition in any way or the cack-handed way Cable and Fallon have overseen the privatisation of Royal Mail,I just think the union has other things it should be concentrating on and seeing Billy wandering about trying to turn our Industrial Action into some kind of co-ordinated anti-coalition political strike pisses me off ever so slightly.

If he wants to lead a general strike he should really have applied for Brendan Barber's old job.

[Brain Fury]

What is this actually supposed the achieve?

To be honest it's political which doesn't sit very well with me.
Not that I side with the coalition in any way or the cack-handed way Cable and Fallon have overseen the privatisation of Royal Mail,I just think the union has other things it should be concentrating on and seeing Billy wandering about trying to turn our Industrial Action into some kind of co-ordinated anti-coalition political strike pisses me off ever so slightly.

If he wants to lead a general strike he should really have applied for Brendan Barber's old job.

Agree 100%.

[Ahebban]

The privatisation was always going to be a mess once they decided to rush the process through. Is it some sort of back-handed compliment to the CWU that the coalition felt they had to rush the process? It will be interesting to see if Cable's position over the privatisation changes again when he makes appearances before the National Audit Office and other parliamentary committees to explain his and the govt's role.

Now is not the time to be muddling the industrial action with the privatisation message. The focus has to be on securing an agreement with Royal Mail. There will be ample opportunity to renew the debate on privatisation thereafter.

The problem with Billy is he doesn't seem to know what his role is any more. He is looking to keep close ties with Labour (personal ambitions?) but at the same time he is having to criticise (rightly) the stance taken by the Labour Party in respect to the privatisation. The more I hear him speak the less sense he makes. Billy attended the Unite the Resistance conference last weekend as a speaker. He managed to leave CWU delegates unsure as to whether the IA would be on 4th or 5th November! He goes off on a tangent, losing his audience as well as himself in the process. He should stay in the background and leave Dave etal. to do all the media presentation stuff.

[Danelectro]

. He should stay in the background and leave Dave etal. to do all the media presentation stuff.

I get your point but 'stay in the background' and pick up the wages he is on,something not quite right if that has to happen.
For me id rather see the CWU merge with RMT.