Socialist Party members in CWU
Communication Workers Union (CWU) reps have been meeting in, without doubt, one of the most important series of meetings in our history, to discuss the negotiators’ agreement with Royal Mail senior management.
The CWU leadership is recommending acceptance. But we have not concluded an agreement yet. This will only end when the members decide it’s over.
In what has been the most bitter dispute we have ever seen, against the most anti-trade union management, hell-bent on smashing our union, our members have stood firm. We saw the strongest picket lines we have ever seen, but at the same time we have seen around 400 reps and members suspended and a number have been sacked.
The intention of management was clear from the outset. To break us, to clear the way for more profits to go to the major shareholders at the expense of our members.
Nine years ago, when Royal Mail was sold off, we knew this fight would come. The CWU leadership was unprepared for the type of battle this has turned into. Instead of the national strikes we have had in the past, of two or three days before coming to a national agreement, we have faced a hard battle. The union’s leadership should have prepared, through discussion at all levels of the union, for escalating action, and with a serious mass appeal for a strike fund, instead of a low-key national appeal and local areas needing to establish their own ad hoc arrangements.
Reinstate victimised reps and members
There can be no agreement without reinstatement of all suspended and sacked reps and members.
The pay offer of around 10% over three years is a major pay cut in real terms for our members. When RPI inflation has been 14%, this is an offer of effectively 3.3% a year! We require an inflation-proof pay rise.
The current proposals would decimate our national agreements, hard-won by our members over decades. What we lose now will be hard to win back. The changes on sick pay will put members into situations where they feel forced to attend work when they are ill. Other key changes are to attendance procedures, ill-health retirement (from 34 to 16 weeks), and worse terms and conditions for new starters. This is alongside executive action taking place all over the country, where members have seen start times changing.
It’s clear our determined 18 days of action have forced Royal Mail back on a number of issues. But it is not enough.
Prepare serious campaign
It is not just about voting to reject, but preparing again for a major campaign of serious escalating strike action. That should include mass rallies in every major city, building a campaign in the trade union movement and communities to defend the service. We should call on the TUC and the whole labour movement to come to our aid.
Our national union leaders have often commented recently about the financial state of the company, but this is directly due to gross mismanagement and privatisation, carving up the organisation to leech out huge sums from the most profitable parts.
CWU’s leaders should have publicly called for the renationalisation of Royal Mail, particularly when CEO Simon Thompson and co threatened administration. The CWU leadership should have demanded that Keir Starmer publicly commit to the policy passed at last autumn’s Labour Party conference, of taking Royal Mail back into public ownership. That could have put real pressure on Sunak’s Tory government who have backed Royal Mail bosses.
We need nationalisation, with compensation only on the basis of proven need, and with the complete removal of the board. A publicly owned postal service under democratic workers’ control would enable inflation-proof pay rises, secure our terms and conditions, and allow for a shorter working week without loss of pay. It would provide the basis to build a public delivery service to every door that could be a huge resource for local communities.
