City Link redundancies

Bankers get bonuses…

…workers get the boot

City Link workers and fellow trade unionists protesting outside the bankrupt company's headquarters on New Year's Day 2015

City Link workers and fellow trade unionists protesting outside the bankrupt company’s headquarters on New Year’s Day 2015   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Dan Crowter, Coventry Socialist Party

It was a happy new year for City banking bosses. With their bonuses, 121 members of Goldman Sachs were paid an average of £3 million each last year. It was not such a happy new year for everyone however.

Over 3,000 City Link workers received an unwelcome present when the haulage firm’s bankruptcy was announced on Christmas Day. The courier workers were then given their redundancy notices by administrators on New Year’s Eve.

The RMT transport workers’ union has rightly described the decision as “disgraceful” and “brutal”.

But the bosses of the company’s owners, private equity firm Better Capital, won’t be suffering. Its founder, millionaire Jon Moulton, has so much cash to spare he’s been able to make big donations to both the Tories and Ukip.

When the banks faced collapse in 2008 they were bailed out – which we’re now paying for through the destruction of public services, with 60% of the cuts still to come. But the government has barely lifted a finger for City Link’s collapse.

All right for some

The investment bankers who were bailed out are doing all right for themselves though. In 2014 they raked in £54 billion in fees on company mergers and takeovers – a seven year high!

One estate agent reported a surge in investment bankers registering to buy apartments valued at £2 million to £5 million in London. While the City Link sackings are another example of how working class people are still suffering in this so-called ‘recovery’, the rich are getting even richer.

Courier firms like City Link should be nationalised, along with the recently sold-off Royal Mail, as part of a fully integrated, publicly owned postal service run under workers’ control, to provide a service, not make profits.

Any system that leads to thousands of workers losing their jobs at Christmas – or any other time – is not fit for purpose and should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

A democratic socialist society is the only way to end capitalist exploitation. If you agree, join the Socialist Party today.

TUSC supporters at the City Link, photo by Coventry SP

TUSC supporters at the City Link protest, photo by Coventry SP   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)