Socialist Party members in CWU
Thousands of postal workers have participated in Communication Workers Union (CWU) online and gate meetings.
They show the iron determination of Royal Mail workers to keep on fighting – and have voted ‘no confidence’ in Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson!
During the pandemic, Royal Mail made £1.7 billion in profits. In the nine years since privatisation, it has made over £5 billion in profits.
Yet it has embarked on the most brutal attack on its workers in its 500-year history.
Daniel Kretinsky, whose wealth is put at £4.3 billion, owns 22.25% of Royal Mail and is strongly rumoured to want to make a takeover bid. The bosses want us broken and our terms dismantled, to maximise their mega-profits.
Gig-economy style
The bosses clearly want to turn Royal Mail into a gig economy-style courier with a self-employed model. They want an end to the Universal Service Obligation of a six-day letter service.
They intend to start cutting 10,000 jobs, including compulsory redundancies, with a lot worse redundancy terms than currently agreed.
At present there are around 12,000 agency staff. There should be no redundancies as long as there are agency staff being used.
The pay offer remains an inadequate 3.5% and will not be backdated. They want new entrants on 20% worse pay.
Sick pay and allowances will be slashed, the Sunday premium payment will go; they intend to impose annualised hours, and later start and finish times. They want CWU out of the workplace so they can impose rather than negotiate.
They want to hive off the profitable international wing of the company, GLS, and leave the ‘loss-making’ postal side, without subsidy.
The bosses say this is down to losing money. They announced a six-month loss of £219 million, but that comes after a profit in the previous year of £758 million.
They can’t afford to pay us, but they could afford £600 million to the shareholders and directors!
Strikes
So far, postal members have taken eight days of strike action, with the biggest picket lines we have ever seen, and huge public support. This has rocked Royal Mail and forced it to negotiate.
We have now announced strike days up to Christmas: 24, 25, and 30 November; 1, 9, 11, 14, 15, 23, and 24 December.
This could see postal workers taking strike action at Christmas for the first time ever.
The CWU has put forward a counter-proposal, including demanding the maintenance of the Universal Service Obligation, no compulsory redundancies, a decent backdated pay rise, and serious negotiations over changes to working practices.
However, Socialist Party members believe it is a mistake for the union to suggest the extension of lower rates for new entrants from the current six months to one year, as this legitimises a two-tier workforce and opens the door to further attacks later down the line.
It’s often been said we are in the fight of our lives. This not just about our terms and conditions, but also protecting a vital service to the public.
What is required is not cuts in services but an expansion. We deliver to 35 million homes, six days a week; we have a network of thousands of buildings over the country. This could be developed as a huge social resource.
But to do that, what is required is removal of private greed and renationalisation of mail, run democratically by those who know the service – the workers!
We now need to prepare for the most intense period of strike action, including a mass appeal for the national strike fund by the CWU and the Trades Union Congress.
Not so family friendly
Jo, a striking CWU member from Fife in Scotland, spoke in the discussion on ‘Women in the trade unions – a proud history of struggle’ at the Socialism 2022 event.
“Royal Mail calls itself a ‘family friendly’ company. But it wants us to finish two hours later, which will make it impossible to pick up kids from school.
“And it will be dangerous for women posties working in the dark. The changes they want to make to sick pay will mean we won’t be able to take sick leave when our kids are ill.
“Strikers are struggling to make ends meet, especially single parents. We urgently need a strike fund to prevent desperate strikers crossing the picket line and going back to work.”
Post Office workers vote for more strike action
In a national reballot, CWU members in the Post Office have voted by 91.24%, on a 65.21% turnout, to continue their strike action.
Despite the Post Office making £35 million and £39 million in profit in the last two years, they have made a pay offer of just 5% from April 2022, following a pay freeze.
