Postal Workers Face the Fight of Their Lives

[merson01]

The new measures just announced by the Tory government to combat the virus will do nothing to halt to the large numbers of postal workers catching the virus or being forced to isolate because their office has been infected. Both Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union(CWU) have offered up postal workers as the fifth emergency service without putting in place adequate safety measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Postal workers do not just deliver letters, but in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have joined with all logistics workers and are playing an ever more "essential" role, as they deliver food, water, medications, money, communications, and much more to millions of homes. This massively increased workload has led to a large number of postal workers catching Covid 19.

The last month has seen significant outbreaks of Covid 19 in offices all over the country:

• Three postal workers contracted the virus at a delivery office in Blackpool.
• Eight staff members have tested positive for coronavirus at the delivery office in Abbey Road, Malvern.
• Two Royal Mail workers at the Cheltenham delivery office have tested positive for Covid-19.
• 15 staff at Royal Mail's distribution centre in Swindon tested positive for COVID-19.
• The sorting office in Derry, based on Great James Street, is currently without 60 of its 120 workforce due to the virus. It is understood that 24 staff are currently off due to Covid-19 and 36 are self-isolating.
• A Royal Mail delivery office has undergone an 'intensive clean' after three employees tested positive for coronavirus. The affected workers are now self-isolating at home following the outbreak at the Stone sorting office.
• The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said there had been 16 confirmed cases in the Bathgate delivery office and warned sharing postal vans could contribute to the virus spreading at other sites.
• Seven workers at a busy Royal Mail depot in East Renfrewshire have tested positive for Covid-19.
• "Seven people have recently tested positive for coronavirus at the Newton Mearns Delivery Office.
• In Fife, there has been one confirmed case in the Dunfermline delivery office.

This list of offices with Covid 19 cases is growing and by no means complete. Royal Mail alongside the CWU are downplaying the dangers, and in some cases, outbreaks are deliberately being kept secret. It is well known that cases of Covid 19 have happened at major London offices, but nothing has appeared about them in the press.

Whistleblowers & Strike Action

This wall of silence is forcing some workers to take matters into their own hands. Opposition from postal workers to these attacks on their health and working condition although inchoate is the start of much more significant opposition to the attacks from Royal Mail management.

One action taken by postal workers is to upload footage of offices that are a danger to health onto social media. Postal workers are also contacting newspapers anomalously in order to speak about the fact that staff are not being protected properly in breach of health and safety rules.

Some employees posted a 45-second video clip taken on October 2 this year. The video shows some staff members with no social distancing measures in place.
One whistleblower told the Worcester News: "No temperature checks are being carried out, no hand sanitiser is available, and staff are not wearing masks, and there is no social distancing at all. "I am concerned about the residents of Malvern as well as staff."

Royal Mail responded to the videos with the usual platitudes saying: "Throughout this crisis, every decision we make puts the health of our people and customers first. We have a range of preventive measures in place to protect both our customers and our colleagues. As well as encouraging good hand hygiene, standard ways of working have been revised to ensure that colleagues maintain appropriate social distancing at all times."

Derry

By far the most serious outbreak of Covid 19 as regards postal workers in the UK has happened in Derry, Northern Ireland. Postal workers were so enraged by the lack of protection they took strike action because they felt that they were being led like lambs to the slaughter due to the unsafe working conditions. They demanded a deep clean of the premises before they returned to work.

Charlie Kelly, from the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), spoke to Belfast Live saying "I believe that management is hoping to have more staff back within the next week but until at least Friday the sorting office is only focusing on delivering packages rather than letters. That has been happening over the last week because the situation has escalated within the last week. We now have around 60 staff off due to coronavirus and four other staff off due to other issues, and you can only imagine the pressure that puts the workforce. We have been like this now since March - due to the restrictions people are naturally shopping more online, and that is putting further pressure on staff to deliver everything on time. And the staff are still feeling incredibly uneasy about the entire situation. We are about to go into what is usually the busiest time of the year for us. Half the staff are currently off, and the virus does not appear to be going away anytime soon.
The walkout in Derry became the precursor for other postal workers to walk out on strike. In Strabane, both Royal Mail and CWU officials managed partially, for now, to keep a lid on the growing anger amongst postal workers. Although workers in Strabane briefly walked out and returned only because a deep clean of the office was carried out. Just recently Postal workers went on strike at a Stoke delivery office after two of their colleagues tested positive for coronavirus.

Trigger Event

Royal Mail's attitude towards the Covid 19 pandemic should not be seen as just a case of bad management but is the product of their subordination of the human needs to the drive for profits and in some cases the accumulation of personal wealth.

The pandemic is a historic event that has exposed the economic, political, social and moral bankruptcy of Royal Mail. It is laying bare the unbridgeable chasm that exists between the businessmen that run Royal Mail and the needs and interests of postal workers.

Royal Mail Management has seen the pandemic as a "trigger event" in which to carry out an agenda that has been on the table ever since Royal Mail was privatised back in 2013.
The talks that are currently being held behind closed doors between Royal Mail and the CWU will be seen as a historic moment. The outcome of these talks will govern what will happen to the 500-year-old institution in the decades to come.
Nothing good will come out of these talks. Postal workers will face an unprecedented attack on their jobs and conditions to say nothing about the dangers to their health.
Royal Mails position is clear. They would like to do anything they want without the slightest impediment to their plans. They see the union as "only representing the membership on personnel issues" with a reduction of CWU reps and officials by 25%.

The position of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) is clear it will not only roll over and play dead but will alongside Royal Mail implement any changes at the same time seeking to prevent the undoubted opposition to these attacks from postal workers. The CWU role as an industrial policeman is matched by its continued political suppression of postal workers through its alliance with the Labour Party. The CWU claims that Labour in power will renationalise the postal service after it deregulated Royal Mail during its last period in office.

As was said in a previous article on the World Socialist Website "It was Labour which introduced the skewed form of competition in which private operators gained entry points to the most profitable parts of Royal Mail, while riding on the back of its mail delivery network. While the private sector effectively received state-subsidised profits, further pressure was applied on Royal Mail to realign itself on a commercial basis. Labour's Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Ummuna has dismissed any pledge to renationalise as "completely irresponsible" and "like writing a blank cheque."

If any postal worker thinks their union will fight these attacks in any meaningful way, they should examine the CWU's actions since 2013. In that time, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), has been integrated into management structures. Only recently the CWU sat on a massive live ballot for strike action given to them by postal workers seeking a fight against Royal Mail and did nothing with it except use it as a bargaining tool to get their feet under the negotiating table. In return for seats at the top table and the privileges that go with them, the CWU is seeking to impose Royal Mail's agenda for change now that the strike ballot has now run out.
"Royal Mail has been privatised for seven years now," the union's deputy General Secretary Terry Pullinger tells the UnionDues podcast. "But we have done well in keeping the company together and protecting terms and conditions." This not true the last seven years have been an unmitigated disaster for postal workers. With the CWU's help, the dismantling this public asset has created an expendable workforce and allow private equity companies to feast off the profits made from the increased exploitation of the working class.

Conclusion

Postal workers must take the initiative to build their own independent rank-and-file workplace committees to coordinate opposition. These committees must call for their own set of demands, such as safe conditions to protect them from COVID-19, wage increases, the transfer of part-time workers to full-time positions and the nationalisation of Royal Mail without compensation.
Workers must continue to take to social media and other media outlets to share information about what is taking place in their area and can coordinate independent action. Rank-and-file action committees would serve as the means through which postal workers can mobilise their strength, appealing to the broader working class to take part in the fight to defend all social and democratic rights, including the preparation of strike action with other workers throughout the UK and globally.

Postal workers are urged to contact the Socialist Equality Party -sep@sep.org.uk

[PARCELHORSE]

It's hard to argue with that whatever your political views are.
We have been shafted from all sides. A great service destroyed by greed.

[2yearpostie]

Looney tunes never gonna happen.

[PARCELHORSE]

I fear you are right a fightback will not happen but the article is correct in the history of RM workers being sold out over recent years. I'm out soon but I wonder what you newbies face in the future.

[k979aaa]

Just a job now which most will not see retirement and the crap pension.

[Newbie001]

Forgot to mention stress levels from constant bullying from managers. Know of 5 posties that have had mini strokes, heart attacks in last six months. Not to mention being off with stress itself.
Would be interesting to see national figures.

[guardianangel]

All down to a weak Union who have slowly in the last 10 years let Royal Mail off the hook again and again and again,sadly they have now become the same as Unison who are suppose to stand up for health workers rights and we all know how badly nurses are treated,i'm afraid the days of the Union are over the once union orientated Labour party have sadly become a clone of the Conservatives.Basically suck it up or go self employed.