Gary Clark, CWU Scotland No.2 branch secretary (personal capacity)
On 19 July, Communication Workers Union (CWU) Royal Mail reps will be meeting in York as the national strike ballot result is announced. There is likely to be a massive ‘yes’ vote that will smash the anti-union threshold for industrial action over pay. We believe that the CWU will also serve notice on Royal Mail for a second industrial action ballot over terms and conditions, because management not only want to impose a 2% pay rise, which is a huge real-terms wage cut, but also smash our hard-won terms and conditions.
This comes on the back of our British Telecom members recently voting for strike action, our Post Office counters members, who have already been taking industrial action over the last couple of months, and soon Royal Mail cleaners and engineers, who will be joining the dispute and will also be balloted. Royal Mail managers in Unite are voting to take strike action too.
There has never been such an angry mood among Royal Mail workers, and that includes when we had such hardline CEOs as Rico Back, Adam Crozier and Alan Leighton.
Members feel they have been treated with total contempt by the CEO and the board. The national reps meeting takes place as Royal Mail shareholders will be holding their annual general meeting, also in York. A clear message must be sent to the shareholders that, unless there is a rapid change in their offer, we are going to see a major period of industrial action and the first national dispute since 2009.
We must have an RPI inflation-proof deal with no strings attached, as it was the efforts of postal workers who, despite Covid, turned a predicted £500 million loss into over £740 million profit. While there has been a £1.2 billion turnaround, Royal Mail management has imposed a 2% pay award by executive action with the threat of more executive action on terms and conditions. At the same time, we have seen £400 million given to shareholders, and huge bonuses to directors.
It’s clear that the membership wants action called right away, and there must be a serious strategy to send a message to the shareholders and the board.
As prices keep spiralling, there is a clear mood now in the country supporting trade union industrial action, with the RMT and the rail unions leading the way, soon to be joined by 115,000 angry postal workers.
The CWU should take the lead in approaching other fighting unions such as the RMT and Unite to see if we can coordinate action among all the unions over the private and public sectors.
We should take confidence from seeing Boris Johnston forced to resign. We now have a weak Tory government which can be swept aside by a strike wave. The Tories may be divided as they fight over who is going to be the next prime minister, but they united over more anti-union measures such as the ‘scabs charter’ of using agency labour against strikes. With Starmer not supporting strikes, workers are looking for an industrial and political lead as the cost of living crisis bites. It’s therefore essential that we continue to call for the renationalisation of Royal Mail, British Telecom, the railways and the energy companies.
