Royal Mail management in London is hell-bent on asset stripping in preparation for the Con-Dem government’s plans to privatise the post service.
Greg Maughan
Their decision to sell off Rathbone Place, Nine Elms and to close East London mail centre is clearly motivated by financial gain rather than what is good for the service the public receives. Rathbone Place is just off Oxford Street and could raise a pretty penny!
These callous closures from a shortsighted management will have a serious impact on jobs and service levels in London. Since the early 1990s seven mail centres have closed. Last year, Royal Mail paid over £1 million in compensation to London businesses for a range of quality failures.
Royal Mail has already said there will be 453 voluntary redundancies. That still leaves 848 workers from the sites facing closure who will be given a stark choice – compulsory relocation or being forced out of the job because relocating is impossible.
Attempts to deskill and casualise the workforce should be resisted. We all know this is also an attempt to make Royal Mail more appealing to the private sector.
CWU members in the Socialist Party believe that firm opposition to all cuts and closures is needed and that the union should be making preparations now for a strike ballot to strengthen their hands in negotiations.
