Post Office privatisation: National action needed to defend jobs

R0YAL MAIL claim to have gone from a crisis with record losses to a
miracle turnaround almost overnight. The opening up of the markets,
along with ‘downstream access’ (where other postal operators can put
mail in the postal system for it to be delivered by Royal Mail for a
fraction of the cost), has seen Royal Mail go on the offensive against
postal workers. And from 1 January other postal operators can collect,
sort and deliver any mail.

Gary Clark, Vice Chair, Scotland No2. Branch, Communication Workers’ Union (CWU)

Royal Mail aim to cut £370 million by this April, with no regard to
quality of service or postal workers’ workloads. This can only be
achieved by job losses, reducing full-time jobs to part-time hours,
closing mail and distribution centres and attacking delivery workers.

Recently they have spent a huge amount of time studying the postal
service in Holland, where there is a low-paid, part-time casual
workforce.

Their longer-term view is even more frightening, with the aim of
40,000 job losses. And they are increasing our pension contributions to
fund the pension deficit caused by the Royal Mail pension holiday, with
the possibility of raising the retirement age from 60 to 65.

Their idea of ‘total flexibility through self-motivated teams’ seems
to be only the start. They have other plans, such as moving from weekly
to monthly pay and restructuring the pay package with ‘winners’ and
‘losers’. There will be more automation, which will mean more job
losses.

Scottish management have started the offensive by attempting to
remove all nightshift workers from Dundee and Edinburgh and not filling
vacant full-time duties but recruiting them at part-time hours. This has
resulted in a ballot result of 5:1 in favour of industrial action in
Dundee.

In Edinburgh we have seen management attempt to enforce changes in
the Dell Delivery Office. This was first met with a ballot for
industrial action in the Dell office, soon followed with the
announcement that the Scotland No 2 branch were going to ballot the
whole area for industrial action. They were not prepared to allow Royal
Mail pick off their members one by one.

This forced management back round the table and a partial climbdown.
It’s clear this was only achieved through the threat of industrial
action in the office concerned and the fact the whole branch was
prepared to take strike action in defence of our terms and conditions.
It’s clear this is only an uneasy truce. Royal Mail will attack again.
The likely industrial unrest that lies ahead will decide what type of
industry we work in.