Renationalise Royal Mail

Socialist Party members in CWU

Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in Royal Mail have voted to accept the national “Business Recovery Transformation Growth Agreement” by 75.8% to 24.2%, with a 67% turnout.

But this should not be viewed as a positive vote in favour of the national agreement, or a vote of confidence in the national leadership. It is more the result of a brutal long-running national dispute. Postal workers took 18 days of strike action and saw around 400 reps and activists either suspended or sacked by a vicious senior management team, hell-bent on smashing the CWU.

Socialist Party members in the CWU called for a ‘reject’ vote.

We recognise that our action pushed back Royal Mail management on a number of issues and stopped them smashing the CWU as an effective trade union. CEO Simon Thompson was eventually removed.

The dispute showed the massive potential power of the postal membership, which was only partially realised. We saw the strongest picket lines that anyone can remember. Perhaps the most impressive event was the massive 20,000-strong strike rally in Parliament Square in central London, which marched to Buckingham Palace – probably the first time that it has happened in living memory!

But we don’t believe this is the best deal we could have won, and we think some serious mistakes were made by the leadership.

The agreement covers a 10% pay rise over three years, with another 2% from April 2024, and a non-consolidated £500 lump sum. Added to this is £900 from a surplus in the pension scheme, forced out of management by the pressure of members who were not convinced by the initial offer.

But also in the agreement there are attacks on a range of terms and conditions, including sick pay, absence procedures, ill-health retirement and voluntary redundancy payment.

There has also been a move to bring in annualised hours, where there are periods in the year where you work less than your contracted hours and periods you do more. Along with changes in start times, this will impact greatly on members, particularly those with childcare issues.

The agreement includes a review by Lord Falconer, a barrister who served in Tony Blair’s cabinet, into the dismissed and suspended members. We don’t believe this is good enough. All of these members should be reinstated, and managers whose actions went too far should be taken under the agreed conduct code.

Right at the start of the campaign, we said that this dispute was of a far more serious level than previous postal disputes. We said that the CWU leadership should launch a strike fund, and put a call out for solidarity to the wider trade union movement, many of whom were moving into action themselves, and working-class communities. This would have raised the stakes against a ruthless employer.

The CWU leadership was not prepared for this. But what is undoubted was the determination of our members to fight. They took part in the longest period of strike action for decades, through the summer of 2022 up to Christmas Eve. But after Christmas, momentum was lost.

Despite us getting another massive mandate for more strike action, there was a lack of will at the top of CWU to call more strikes, accompanied by a tone of ‘we must understand the position Royal Mail is in’.

This was a serious mistake, especially as it was raised by management that the company was on the verge of going into administration. This was a clear attempt to frighten us into accepting a poor deal. We consistently said that postal workers should not have to pay for a crisis caused by privatisation and by senior management. The directors got their disgusting massive payments and shareholders pocketed hundreds of millions of pounds, while our members only got crumbs.

Yet at no time did the CWU leadership call for renationalisation of Royal Mail. No demand was put on Keir Starmer and Co to commit a Labour government to bringing Royal Mail back into public ownership, a position passed at last autumn’s Labour conference. That demand must be made now. Unless Royal Mail is taken out of the hands of the vulture capitalists, there will be further vicious attacks on postal workers and the service.

The question now is how can we keep the fight going? Many rank-and-file activists campaigned against the offer, including Socialist Party members and the left group ‘CWU Forward’, and other groupings were formed. Many members have drawn the conclusion that a more fighting leadership is needed. These groups can be the basis for a new left in the union, across all sectors, to bring together those who are prepared to fight and build from the ground up, and appeal to reps at all levels to get involved.