A Royal Mail worker
Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson has resigned. Due to go in October, but in reality he’s gone already, kept on the payroll for now, and leaving with a payoff as big as £700,000. Meanwhile, we are facing a real-terms three-year pay cut, a reduction in sick pay, new attendance standards to make it easier to manage postal workers out of the business, and ill-health retirement being more than halved. A reduction of indoor hours will increase outdoor time, making it even more difficult for our aging workforce. All of this, along with seasonal hours and flexibility, and the establishment of a two-tier workforce.
Darren Jones MP, who was the chair of the select committee that did a job in holding Thompson to account, today ‘wishes him the best’ for his future.
Well I cannot wish him the best. He has led Royal Mail in its attempt to smash the CWU and our members. He was in charge of the company at a time when it went out to attack members and reps, and has overseen around 400 members and reps suspended and sacked by his ‘gold command’ of union busters.
So I don’t ‘wish him the best’, and we cannot expect the next CEO to be any different. Their role is to satisfy the shareholders and not the workers or the customers. That will only change by bringing Royal Mail back into public ownership and sweeping aside all of the senior management. A renationalised Royal Mail could be run as a real public service, and as part of the community.
If it wasn’t for the determined action by postal workers, Thompson would still be doing his job trying to smash the union. Now we’ve got to keep up the pressure, save the jobs of the 400 victimised reps, and keep pushing the bosses back. That means voting to reject the offer and preparing members for the scale of strike action needed to win.
