Postal workers should vote yes to fight not just cuts but privatisation too By a CWU rep In late August rumours from government sources surfaced in the press that the Coalition could announce the float of Royal Mail on the stock market in September, aiming to start selling shares to investors in October. In response, […]
Click to read as PDF Strike threat rattles Coalition, makes investors wary: Bring on a strike ballot & let’s all vote yes! CWU postal members will be balloted for industrial action from 20 September to 3 October – and not a moment too soon. With privatisation coming on top of a crap pay offer, […]
By Dara O’Coghaidin, Mental Health worker / 02 September 2013 Established in 1948 to be a free and universal system of healthcare, the NHS reached the pensionable age of 65 in July and is sadly unwell. Patient satisfaction has plummeted from an all-time high of 70 per cent to just 58 per cent in a […]
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 […]
…only a national strike by postal workers can derail it Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable has confirmed that the Tory-led Coalition will aim to float Royal Mail on the London Stock Exchange this Autumn, saying the public sector postal service was on an “irreversible course” of privatisation. His announcement in parliament on 10 […]
Two decades of government policy made Royal Mail fail The Tories aim to succeed in privatising Royal Mail where Labour failed. To do that they have had to reverse New Labour’s policy of using regulation to batter Royal Mail, in order to restore it to profitability. The crisis in Royal Mail has always been to […]
The lessons for our national strike: rank and file initiative and control
By Andy Yorke GMB and UNITE officials called off the third Remploy strike scheduled for Monday 6 August, breaking the momentum of the struggle. The action was pulled at the last minute after a national meeting of the Remploy national consortium, involving GMB and Unite officials, in favour of a “new strategy which will have […]
By Paul Silson In another slap in the face for disabled people, Atos Origin has secured a £400 million contract to run the controversial “Work Capability Assessments” – despite being at the centre of a popular backlash over it’s methods. The scheme – whose sole purpose is to reclassify the sick and disabled as fit for work, […]
On 21 March the European Commission, in charge of regulating competition, approved the Coalition government’s plan to take on the Royal Mail pension scheme, relieving the company of the burden of its £8.4 billion deficit, writes Andy Yorke. While the CWU has long argued […]
Katharine Birbalsingh wowed the Conservative Party conference with her tales of a south London school, which was “out of control” supposedly because white liberal teachers were afraid of punishing black pupils. Jeremy Drinkall reports on plans to put her right wing educational theories to the test by opening a “Free School” in the area
Andrew Lansley’s NHS and Social Care Bill is a fraud. It’s no exaggeration to say that it will destroy the NHS as we know it – letting privatisation rip the heart out of our health service. John Bowman explains
Born in Essex, and son of a pathologist, Lansley’s first taste of politics came at the university of Exeter where he won a close battle to become president of the student guild against a communist candidate, securing support from Tory, Labour, and Lib Dem students.
GIANT MEDICAL and outsourcing companies are salivating at the prospect of getting lucrative contracts for NHS healthcare. That’s why private health bosses donated £750,000 to David Cameron’s 2010 election campaign. Now they are hoping their loyalty will be rewarded with the passing of Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s NHS and Social Care Bill.
“We are not the same old Conservative Party. We have changed. We are a party for the mainstream majority.” This is how David Cameron lied his way into Downing Street, writes Jeremy Drinkall
The Communication Workers Union has taken to the streets to protest against plans to privatise Royal Mail. The Coalition has broken yet another promise: that private capital would only take a minority stake in Royal Mail. Now we face a full-blown sell-off. Promises to safeguard post offices and the Universal Service Obligation (to deliver equally […]