Workers' fightback to defend postal services

Postal workers in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, are to strike again on 30, 31 March and 2 April to reinstate fellow worker Dave Condliffe.

Since December 19 days of action have been taken at Burslem. At first, this strike, alongside other postal workers across North and Mid Staffordshire, stopped Royal Mail bosses' plans to impose part-time working for full-time jobs. The strike continued at Burslem because 62-year-old postal worker Dave Condliffe was sacked on trumped-up charges of aggressive behaviour towards a manager.

However, this blatant victimisation by Royal Mail bosses' is nothing new. Bullying and intimidating staff is commonplace and many workers see this as part of a wider strategy by the New Labour government to soften up the workforce in preparation for a further run-down of the service and privatisation. This involves thousands of job losses and attacks on pay and conditions.

Private 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.

The existence of Royal Mail as a publicly owned service is under threat and must be fought by all postal workers and working-class people across Britain.

To be successful, this struggle must demand a fully publicly-owned postal service run by postal workers and not managers on bloated salaries, nor by private companies out to make billions of pounds.

Andy Bentley