Staffs postal workers say:

Reinstate Dave Condliffe now

Vote 'yes' to widen the strike action

No to management intimidation

Postal workers at the Burslem depot in Stoke have taken one week's strike action to call for the reinstatement of sacked postal worker Dave Condliffe. The strike was solid.

Andy Bentley, Stoke Socialist Party

Postal workers across north and mid-Staffordshire are incensed at Dave's sacking on trumped up charges of aggressive behaviour to a manager. Postal workers regularly suffer intimidation from a bullying management. Dave, 62, has an exemplary record of 13 years as a postman, not having even one day's sick leave in all that time.

Evidence given by two members of the public, stating that Dave was abused by a manager, has been disregarded by Royal Mail. Ordinary people will be angry to hear that Royal Mail is prepared to ignore them in this way.

In reality Dave was sacked because he committed the same 'crime' as 700 other postal workers: the strike action before Christmas which successfully stopped Royal Mail from imposing part-time working for full-time workers in the area. Royal Mail bosses have sacked Dave as an act of revenge to try to re-establish their 'authority' over workers.

But their tactic of bullying and victimising staff is also part of a wider strategy dictated by the New Labour government to soften up the workforce in preparation for further running down of the service and privatisation. This must be fought by all postal workers. Companies are being encouraged to compete with Royal Mail while others queue up to take a share of the billions of pounds to be made out of a fully privatised postal service.

To make it even more profitable for them New Labour are trying to cow the workforce with a bullying regime, thousands of jobs losses and attacks on pay and conditions.

Royal Mail bosses have got away with bullying tactics for long enough. It is time to fight back and postal workers in Burslem have started that fight.

The successful one week strike must be built on. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is now to ballot postal workers throughout north and mid-Staffordshire for further strike action. A widespread and energetic campaign for a 'yes' vote would win the support of the vast majority of postal workers in the area.