By a CWU postal rep, December 12 2013 The CWU postal executive has recommended that members accept the agreement reached after weeks of talks by union negotiators led by Dave Ward, Deputy General Secretary Postal. Yet despite the headline-grabbing pay and conditions offer, at its heart is a blueprint for company-unionism and class collaboration. […]
By a CWU postal rep The privatisation of Royal Mail last month was not the victory for “popular capitalism” the Coalition government has crowed about. On the contrary, it was a defeat for the users and deliverers of a popular public service. But even by their own terms, it only succeeded because the government […]
Postal workers in Seacroft delivery office in Leeds staged a canteen sit-in this Saturday after a driver was wrongly suspended for an accident. They were joined by the workers from the York Road delivery office sited in the same building in a show of solidarity.Royal Mail managers at first refused to reverse their decision but […]
Postal workers urgently need to take control of their dispute and strike to win, says a CWU rep Postal workers in the CWU union are stuck in limbo awaiting the outcome of negotiations with Royal Mail bosses. Ten days ago CWU leaders cancelled the first day of strike action scheduled for 4 November in favour […]
By a CWU rep Just as postal workers around the country were gearing up for their first day of strike action this coming Monday, 4 November, leaders in the CWU postal union cancelled the action, supposedly to continue talks. A 30 October joint statement with Royal Mail bosses stated that they had made progress and […]
16 October 2013 – by a CWU postal rep It was announced this afternoon that postal workers have voted four to one for a strike to defend their wages, conditions and jobs in a newly privatised Royal Mail. The postal Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced the first strike date for the 4 November. The […]
By a CWU postal rep If all the local areas currently on strike and all militants across the union were to walk out, coordinate their actions and appeal for everyone to come out, postal workers could still wreck privatisation and defend jobs and the union. CWU leaders Dave Ward and Billy Hayes would object that […]
By a CWU postal rep The Coalition have put two fingers up to Royal Mail workers and the great majority of the population who oppose privatisation. They have gone straight for a sell-off, and of all the days they could have picked to announce it, they chose the day the result of the CWU postal […]
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, […]
By a CWU postal rep
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 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 […]
Postal workers at Bridgwater Delivery Office in Somerset are on strike against imposed “summer savings” (workload hikes) and management bullying. Royal Mail are refusing to suspend a senior manager while allegations of stealing a postman’s mail are investigated, something that would see a worker suspended immediately. This strike is about issues facing workers in every […]
…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 […]
2013 may not be the year the world ends but it certainly could prove a bad one for anyone who relies on Royal Mail, once again threatened with privatisation. Now plans by the postal Communication Workers Union (CWU) to boycott privatised mail in the coming months could kickstart the struggle against a sell-off. It will […]
Post Office workers have taken strike action twice, on Easter Saturday and again on 19 April. They’re angry at plans to close or franchise 76 big high street or “crown” post offices – over twenty per cent. And that’s just the start of what the Coalition calls the “transformation” of Post Office Ltd (POL), aka […]
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 […]
A CWU postal rep reports on the decision to back London posties striking over jobs and backed calls for a general strike in the public sector
Post Office workers have voted a thumping 93% in favour of striking over the lack of a pay rise. The high vote and good turnout (66%) by the 4,000 Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in Crown Post Offices shows the widespread anger with two years of a pay freeze. With growing inflation this is in […]
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 […]