Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/646/10595
From The Socialist newspaper, 11 November 2010
Fight the mail centre cuts
Royal Mail management in London is hell-bent on asset stripping in preparation for the Con-Dem government's plans to privatise the post service.
Greg Maughan
Their decision to sell off Rathbone Place, Nine Elms and to close East London mail centre is clearly motivated by financial gain rather than what is good for the service the public receives. Rathbone Place is just off Oxford Street and could raise a pretty penny!
These callous closures from a shortsighted management will have a serious impact on jobs and service levels in London. Since the early 1990s seven mail centres have closed. Last year, Royal Mail paid over £1 million in compensation to London businesses for a range of quality failures.
Royal Mail has already said there will be 453 voluntary redundancies. That still leaves 848 workers from the sites facing closure who will be given a stark choice - compulsory relocation or being forced out of the job because relocating is impossible.
Attempts to deskill and casualise the workforce should be resisted. We all know this is also an attempt to make Royal Mail more appealing to the private sector.
CWU members in the Socialist Party believe that firm opposition to all cuts and closures is needed and that the union should be making preparations now for a strike ballot to strengthen their hands in negotiations.
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In The Socialist 11 November 2010:
Socialist Students
£9,000 student fees: we won't pay!
No to £9,000 tuition fees: Fight for your future!
Ireland: Largest student protest in a generation
Anti-cuts campaign
Stop the Con-Dems' slave labour scheme
What the capitalist cuts really mean
National Shop Stewards Network: Anti-cuts conference
Socialism 2010
Socialism 2010: An inspirational weekend
Youth
Youth Fight for Jobs and Socialist Students conference
Leeds: Stop the closure of Union Books
Goldsmiths students occupy town hall
Socialist Party editorial
London firefighters' dispute: the fight is not over
Massive anger must be organised into coordinated trade union action
Socialist Party workplace news
London tube strike - picket line reports
BBC staff fight for pensions: picket line reports
Socialist Party news and analysis
Vendetta continues against Tommy Sheridan, socialist fighter
Angry campaigners discuss Stroud fightback
NHS - workers looking for a fighting lead
Socialist Party feature
Attacks on disabled people's rights
International socialist news and analysis
Scotland: potential to build a mass movement against cuts
US elections: Bankruptcy of Democrats leads to spectacular fall
Socialist Party review
Review: Call Mr Robeson: A Life, with Songs
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