Socialist Party members in the CWU
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) national leadership has agreed a national joint statement with the Royal Mail Group board, after involvement of the former general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Sir Brendan Barber, in talks with ACAS.
The statement followed a significant move by Royal Mail – the removal of CEO Simon Thompson from negotiations.
The joint statement was supposed to move the long-running and extremely bitter dispute forward and bring in more intensive negotiations towards a final national agreement. But in the view of many union reps and activists, the statement did not go far enough, and lot of pressure has been put back onto the local reps in the workplace.
In previous months, Royal Mail pushed ahead with their ‘executive action’: imposing changes to duty structure and start times, and bringing in new starters on significantly worse terms and conditions, among other things.
The joint agreement was supposed to put a hold on the bosses’ actions, instead holding a joint review of what has been forced in, and making no changes to start times or duty structure unless agreed locally. But in practice, bosses are still continuing at pace, with the ink not even dry on the paper.
It seems that despite the CEO being removed from negotiations, he’s still trying to dictate to certain managers to push ahead with his plan to smash the influence of the CWU in the workplace.
Managers were let off the leash in the last few months, told that it’s their company to run, which has seen over 300 reps and members suspended and a number sacked.
The CWU cannot make any agreement while reps and members are still suspended. All must be reinstated.
The company has also threatened the prospect of going into administration. The CWU leadership has said, at recent meetings with reps and members, that we have got to realise the financial situation the company is in.
But this is a situation created by senior management, giving £600 million to shareholders and huge pay-outs to the senior directors. Now they expect ordinary postal workers to pay. We say, open the books! Show us where the billions have gone.
A clear demand must now be made for Royal Mail to be brought back into public ownership, from the completely corrupt mismanagement which has been taken place to enrich multimillionaires. The CWU should demand that the Labour Party commits now that an incoming Labour government would immediately bring Royal Mail into public ownership, with compensation only where there is proven need.
The postal executive should name a series of dates for industrial action, if there is no clear sign of an acceptable national agreement to meet the aspirations of the membership.
Tyneside walkout
Barely a few hours after the national joint statement issued on 2 March, including to find “the most constructive way to work together in local revision activity”, management at the Tyneside delivery centre attempted to unilaterally implement the working practice revisions at the heart of the current dispute, and suspend local CWU stewards.
In response, around 1,000 CWU members on the night shift walked out at 2.30am, and were followed by the day shift on Friday morning. The management climbdown was rapid, with the work revisions and suspensions withdrawn. Work was resumed at around 11.30am.
A victory for the CWU, due to rapid collective action of the local reps and members. It’s a warning to keep vigilant for wildcat action from management during this period of negotiations.
Norman Hall, South Tyne and Wear Socialist Party
Leicester rep sacked
CWU members streamed out of the Leicester Meridian mail centre for a gate meeting on 6 March. This followed news that their main union rep, one of around 300 nationally suspended or dismissed on trumped-up charges, has now been sacked.
The joint national statement (see left) says that the disciplinary action taken during the dispute will be independently reviewed, in an effort to “minimise the current tensions across Royal Mail Group workplaces.”
The sacking of union reps is a blatant attempt to neuter the effectiveness of the union and, alongside pay and conditions, is a key issue that would need to be resolved before any agreement can be reached. CWU members are concerned that reps are still being sacked even while this ‘independent review process’ is meant to be taking place.
Steve Score spoke to Leicester CWU reps
