The Socialist 21 June 2003

'President' Blair Fails Again

Wedgwood Potteries Closure

Wales further education colleges: Lecturers Fight For A Living Wage

Kick Poverty Pay Out Of The NHS

France: Workers Still Angry At Bosses' Plans

Sorting Out The Bosses

Tameside Day Centre Users Protest Against Cuts

Anti-discrimination regulations: Fight Concessions To The Religious Right

Iranian Student Protest

Israeli / Palestinian conflict Socialism - The Only Road To Peace

Firefighters dispute: It Didn't Have To Be Like This

What can we do about the 'fat cats?'

East Germany 1953: When the Workers rose Up Against Stalinism

Previous issues, etc

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Sorting Out The Bosses

WHEN I started working for the Post Office 12 years ago, they were making £ millions in profit, most of which went to the government. Very little went into reinvesting in equipment or technology to make the postie's life easier or give us decent pay rises.

A Northwich Communication Workers' Union (CWU) member

Now managers are trying to force us to get more work done in our 40 hours a week. Although they come up with joint agreements with the CWU about harassment and bullying, their versions of harassment are different to ours.

They stand over us like the Gestapo. Obviously they don't trust us to work under our own steam. They think we work harder because they're watching us, propping themselves up against a safety railing, pretending that they're working.

Now they've come up with a good one - get rid of second deliveries. That will save £ millions. Most of the time second deliveries don't go out now, because we're overloaded on first deliveries. They've guaranteed us a five-day week instead of six and an extra £20 a week if we reach the targets.

We've all been promised a "share of the success", which is in effect money taken from a workmate's pocket. The person who loses his or her job will be paying our bonus.

What it all boils down to is losing jobs, putting people in the dole queue so the fat pussies at the top can take the cream. Will Adam Crozier's [chief executive of the Royal Mail] share be the same as mine? If we could make a profit all those years ago, why not now and why not without losing staff?

Thousands, if not millions, of pounds have been wasted buying up useless companies abroad, changing Royal Mail into Consignia and back again. What a waste of money.

And now the part of the business that makes a profit is being trimmed down again. Jobs must go, deliveries will be later in the day for residential areas but businesses will get theirs for 9am. But you'll still have your Saturday delivery of junk mail that is so important to the regulator.

So many good, hardworking people are walking away from this job because of the constant pressure. It has never been a great-paying job but the dinner time finish was a big attraction to many people. Now even that is under threat. Some CWU leaders seems to be watching all this happen whilst they enjoy the financial benefits of being in the leadership.

How can someone who receives a far superior salary to someone they are supposed to represent understand the needs of the grass roots postmen and post women? If they were to receive the same wages as us, then perhaps we'd have a better basic pay now!

Most of the 125 staff at Northwich delivery office are fed up of constant job cuts, persistent harassment by the managers, job insecurity and lack of decent pay. We need a union to stand up and say: "Enough is enough, don't blame us for the management's bunglings".

We also need a union to stand up to Tony Blair and his New Labour cronies, who bow down to big business and the fat cats who control them. Pathetic legislation stopping the bosses getting pay-offs is not enough. Pull our political subscriptions out of the Labour Party and put them in a party that cares about the working class. Become a socialist, the world doesn't need greedy fat cats.

In this issue

'President' Blair Fails Again