A MEMBER of Bristol Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) spoke to The Socialist about the ballot result for a postal strike:
“POSTAL WORKERS have voted to strike, not only over pay but the way we’ve been treated by management, especially the announcements about cuts in jobs.
“A lot of people think the strike should have started months ago when they announced job cuts and when they started talking about changing the deliveries.
“I work in a delivery office, with 160 workers. I start at 5am and work until 12, six days a week. We were promised five-day weeks but I’m still working six days. And the basic wage is only £250.53.
“People are fed up with the way management treat us, I’m being disciplined myself over trumped-up charges.
“When the ballot result was announced, Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said there would be no action for a fortnight but the mood is for action now. People have voted by a big majority to strike so we shouldn’t delay it.
“Management want us out until 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the afternoon delivering mail. We don’t want that and the customers don’t want that. They just want to serve business. What it will mean is amalgamating two or three deliveries so they can make cuts.
“They’ll hive off the business stuff to private companies and we’ll be left guaranteeing deliveries up to Scotland for 27p.”
The ballot result was 63% in favour of industrial action on a 65% turnout.
The Socialist says:
- End low pay for long working hours. For the full pay claim of a minimum wage of £300 for a 35-hour week.
- Stop the break-up and privatisation of the Post Office.
- Renationalise what has already been hived off and run it as an integrated public service under democratic workers’ control and management.
- End all closures, redundancies and ‘rationalisation’. For improved technology and working arrangements which will benefit postal workers and provide a better service.
