NATIONAL BRIEFING -15TH JANUARY 2009

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No. 024/2009
Ref. 30000
Date: 12th January 2009


TO ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS


Dear Colleague

NATIONAL BRIEFING – 15th JANUARY 2009

Please find attached a comprehensive package of documents as the pre-reading material for Thursday’s National Briefing.

We would encourage Branches to ensure these documents are also circulated in due course to all of your Local Representatives.

Yours sincerely




Billy Hayes D Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary Postal















l

Dear Colleagues

NATIONAL BRIEFING -15TH JANUARY 2009

At Annual Conference, Postal Executive meetings and at our Northampton Briefings the Union has developed our policies to deal with the unprecedented challenges facing our industry.

The Government’s decision to accept the key recommendations of the Hooper Report means we now enter a new phase.

The Postal Executive agreed two documents on the 23rd December and the 6th January, which outlined the approach the Union will now take.

Please find attached the following documents which explain the Union’s approach and are necessary pre-reading material for this week’s Briefing.

Appendix A – Final Agenda.
Appendix B – Taking our Campaign Forward.
Appendix C – CWU Initial Response to the Hooper Report.
Appendix D – Responding to Royal Mail.
Appendix E – Summary of the Hooper Report Key Findings (Research Dept).
Appendix F – A Compendium of Relevant Communications since the publication
of the Report.

Over the next few weeks and months the Union is committed to ensuring we can deliver a successful future for our members whilst facing up to the challenges that lie ahead. This means we must be equally strong in our campaigning, our determination to engage Government in direct discussions and achieving immediate negotiations to secure a settlement on modernisation with Royal Mail.

In opposing privatisation we accept that a successful future will also depend on resolutions to pensions and modernisation. All these issues are equally important to the future jobs, terms and conditions of CWU members and the financial stability of Royal Mail.

What all of us must now turn our attention to is working tirelessly on behalf of our members in order to achieve our objectives.

Yours sincerely

Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)
APPENDIX A



FINAL AGENDA
NATIONAL BRIEFING
15TH JANUARY 2009



1.Introduction DGS 11.30 – 11.40

The DGS will also give a statement on
Burslem.


2.Overview – GS 11.40 – 12.30

Guest Speakers – John Grogan, MP
Neil Lawson, Compass

This will include an opportunity for debate
and Q & A’s.


3.Summary of Hooper Report 12.30 – 13.00

Presentation by Head of Research.


4.CWU Response to Royal Mail 13.00 – 14.00

Overview DGS
Assistant Secretary Reports


5.The Role of Branches in the Campaign 14.00 – 14.15
Head of Communications


6.Closing Remarks 14.15 – 14.30
GS and DGS (P)
APPENDIX B


TAKING THE CWU CAMPAIGN FORWARD/SAVE OUR POSTAL SERVICES


The Government’s announcement and the publication of the Hooper Report means we know where we stand.

The whole Union must now unite and organise around a much more focused nationwide campaign.

The campaign must have a much higher public profile and we are committed to quickly developing initiatives in the public arena in a similar way to the successful “Stand by Your Post Campaign”.

Our objectives are:-

To defeat the proposal for Joint Venture/partial privatisation and maintain Royal Mail Group wholly in public ownership.

Resolve the pensions crisis.

Secure and acceptable agreement on modernisation in line with CWU policies.

We want CWU members to have a successful future and this requires us to secure all of the aforementioned objectives. We will need to develop an alternative proposal which builds upon our initial success in getting the Government to accept its responsibilities on pensions.

There is no logical or legal reason why the Government’s proposals must be implemented as a package. We are confident that if we maintain a measured but decisive approach we can drive a coach and horses through the Hooper Report and change the Government’s position.

A Focused Nationwide Campaign

For a campaign to be effective it needs to be broken down into a number of elements:-

Chain of command.
Clarity of objectives.
Narrative and key messages.
Delivering the campaign on the ground.
Monitoring and evaluation.

We have re-engaged the Campaign Company to work with the Union and develop all the strands in a coherent way. We have also agreed to work with the Compass Group and the New Economic Foundation to launch a united front campaign with a useful third party focus.

Campaign Structure - Chain of Command

The PEC has agreed the following Campaign structure.

A Central Campaign Committee (Kitchen Cabinet) has been implemented consisting of the GS, DGS (P), Postal Assistant Secretaries and the Head of Communications. The PEC Chair will organise and chair the meetings. The meetings commenced on the 5th January and will take place every Monday unless otherwise agreed. This will be a priority commitment.

In between Campaign Committee meetings the GS and DGS (P) will be responsible for day to day decision making. The Head of Communications will co-ordinate campaign activities and be responsible for ensuring that everybody knows what is happening and who is responsible for different aspects of the campaign.

We will set up similar Campaign Committees in every Region. These will comprise of Regional Secretaries, Divisional Reps, a Regional Communications lead and one member from all Postal Group Businesses.

The PEC will set the policy direction of the campaign at its fortnightly meetings and receive a report every two weeks from the Campaign Committee.

The PEC will be designated to act as the conduit between CWU Headquarters and the Regions. This role will be developed to ensure there are no mixed messages and to encourage constructive two-way exchanges between HQ and the field on campaign ideas etc.

The PEC will continue to play a role in working to the National Officers and supporting specific campaign initiatives.

The Regional Campaign Committees will receive fortnightly reports on the progress of the campaign with Conference Calls and meetings as required. Face to face meetings will take place at least once a month. This will ensure there are no mixed messages

In order to support communications Karl Stewart will work full time with the Postal Department on developing and assisting the campaign’s communications strategy. This will cover the postal edition of the Voice, posters, pamphlets, letters to members and scanning Royal Mail’s literature etc.
Early Campaign Initiatives

We have established some initial priorities:-

Securing a major block of support inside the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Establishing a separate united front campaign in support of keeping Royal Mail as a public service.

Organising a supportive lobby in every country and region in the UK. This in particular will require effective coordination with Branches.

We are already making progress on these three priorities.

An EDM has been drawn up with John Grogan MP to place before Parliament on 12 January. The aim will be to have this much more broadly based than just from CWU supported constituencies. We want to achieve 100 signatures in double quick time. Our successful Parliamentary Briefing before Xmas suggests that we should have no difficulty in gaining broad support.

We are organising with Compass to establishing a united front campaign around a statement to be launched by Compass and the New Economic Foundation. Compass have considerable reach, and are the most influential trend in the Labour Party, outside of Government. They can reach a range of political and public figures far beyond that which the Union could achieve. Compass will launch this initiative towards the end of January, or in early February with a public meeting in the House of Commons. Compass is keen to develop the policy of this initiative entirely in line with CWU needs. Once launched, we can estimate how far we can spread this initiative with the Branches.

Branches and Regions have of course been working on these issues non-stop. New initiatives are already being undertaken, with a demonstration being prepared by the Midland Region in Pat McFadden’s constituency in February. The Northern Ireland and Welsh Regions are planning meetings at the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly. The Scottish Regional Officers are meeting with some MSPs today (6 January). Doubtless by the time of the briefing there will be further initiatives to report. Consideration will be given at next Monday’s meeting as to whether the Midlands initiative should become a National Demonstration. We will also ensure any separate initiatives are undertaken in a co-ordinated way by the Campaign Committee.

There are other major political events which we must prepare for. On 20 January the BERR Select Committee will be discussing how to expand services offered by Post Office Limited. We will be giving evidence, and this is an important opportunity to further promote the People’s Bank as a way of sustaining postal services and helping in underpinning future investment in Royal Mail. This is also in recognition of the desire of the Postal Executive to co-ordinate our two campaigns. In addition, the BERR Select Committee is going to have a hearing on the Hooper Report which we will doubtless we asked to address.

We shall of course be planting appropriate supportive articles in various media. The briefing on 15 January offers us the opportunity of explaining this work to the Branches, and working through these and other initiatives.

DIRECT DISCUSSIONS WITH GOVERNMENT

We will be contacting the Government this week in line with the offer made by Lord Mandelson of further discussions with the Union early in the New Year. We will continue to pursue all of the issues outlined above directly with Government alongside requesting more detail on pensions and a future regulatory regime.



APPENDIX C



CWU INITIAL RESPONSE TO HOOPER


The Hooper Report offers no new analysis or data on the postal industry. It is a cut and paste job on the work of other analysts, sifted out to suit the predetermined Government policy of privatisation of Royal Mail. The Research Department in conjunction with the GS and DGS Departments are pulling together a reply which will be available within the next two weeks.

We must avoid a ‘timeless’ approach in our response. The impact of the recession is beginning to fully register in politics, and this will shape people’s responses. Our approach must be to connect our positive policies to the more progressive aspects of Government policy. For example, the Government is promoting additional investment, and bringing forward investment programmes, in public services in order to counteract the worst features of the recession. We need to demonstrate how this too can be done if the Postal Service remains in the public sector. Similarly, we need to exploit Government recession initiatives on protecting jobs as part of our overall approach to securing a new agreement on modernisation.

In anticipation of our fuller reply, we can point to some of the key elements of our response. These would include:

The critique of the international comparisons made, especially with Deutsche Poste and TNT. The Report ignores the fact that these firms charge considerably higher prices, explaining in good part the different profitability ratios. The report also ignores that these firms have received much greater financial support from their Governments, thus explaining in good part the different efficiency ratios. The Report also ignores the fact that both firms operate in more regulated markets than Royal Mail. TNT still has a monopoly on mail of less than 50 grams. Deutsche Poste operates with the minimum wage in the postal sector.

An explanation of the impact of removing the pension’s deficit on Royal Mail’s finances. Thus all the tables on Royal Mail future finances in the Report would turn from red to black with the extra £280m capital per year, for the next fifteen years, which results from the Government taking the pensions deficit. It must be recognised that this is a crucial enabler in developing alternative ways of financing Royal Mail in full public ownership.

The critique of the refusal of the Report to do anything on prices. This needs to primarily focus on the access question where the obvious vulnerability of existing headroom arrangement can be exploited. The announcement, outside of the Report, of a 3p increase in tariffs is welcome, and in the direction of our submission to Hooper. But this increase also favourably changes the finances projected for Royal Mail in the future, and thus makes part of the Report redundant.

A critique of the Reports analysis of industrial relations, particularly the absence of any evidence to support the clichéd portrayal of the Union. The failure of management to deploy the investment agreed with the Government will be highlighted alongside Hooper’s criticisms of Royal Mail management.

An attack upon the market rate approach to pay and conditions. We must demonstrate that unionised workers have a different market rate to unorganised workers. The Office of National Statistics most recent figure shows that this mark up results in an average hourly rate 15% higher for a unionised worker as against an unorganised worker. Indeed a number of comparisons will be tackled on the basis that like for like is not being compared. We will vigorously defend our position on pay and conditions and argue that Royal Mail, as a Unionised workforce, should set the benchmark for others to follow. Also that Government must accept and encourage the right of Unionised workforces to influence the market.

An attack upon the suggestion that the expertise to run a successful postal service does not exist in the UK. As part of this we will develop our existing policies to modernise and change the current structure of the Post Office Board.

A critique of the manner in which issues of private versus public investment are posed. All the report’s suggestions about the rigors of EU oversight on state aid are clearly redundant given that every Government in the EU are currently involved in pouring out money to support both private and public investments.

These are some of the issues which we will need to elaborate. Of course, our response will be nuanced. We are going to support some elements of the Report – even if we support a different form of implementation than those suggested. These include:

Agreement that the USO must not be worsened.

Agreement that the Government must take responsibility for the pension’s deficit.

Agreement that it would be irresponsible of the Government to fail to change the current policies on the future of Royal Mail.

Agreement that a new course for industrial relations is necessary.

On some questions we can have some further discussion. Most notable here is on the issue of regulation. The abolition of Postcomm will be welcomed generally by our members. Yet transferring its responsibilities to OFCOM may well mean that the Regulator is less focussed, and the Regulator becomes less accessible to us. Of course, Postcomm has become so unpopular that we can’t try and save it even if we wish to. But we have to be aware that OFCOM is not going to prove an easier organisation to work with.

APPENDIX D


RESPONDING TO ROYAL MAIL


The Union remains opposed to Royal Mail’s slash and burn approach to so called modernisation.

The Postal Executive agreed, on the 18th December, to stand down the planned Mail Centre industrial action and withdraw the previous ballots. This was done on the basis that in light of the Hooper Report and the Government’s announcement, we recognised we are now involved in a much wider fight and that nothing more could have been achieved if we allowed the planned industrial action to go ahead. Some progress was made in meetings with Royal Mail and we expect these discussions to continue this week. A full report will be given by the appropriate National Officer at the National Briefing.

Our industrial priority now must be to engage the company in immediate negotiations to secure a National Agreement on Modernisation. To achieve this we must continue to focus on putting Royal Mail on the defensive and changing their current approach. Therefore, we will be launching our policy to deal with management’s unrealistic savings targets at the National Briefing. In light of the deepening recession it is essential we now prioritise securing and protecting as many jobs as possible. In adopting this approach we also understand that irrespective of any Government final decisions on ownership we still face the potential for significant job losses through automation and loss of work.

The Union remains committed to achieving a fresh pensions settlement for our members, in addition to resolving the pension deficit and giving Royal Mail future financial stability. This aspect is also crucial to defeating Government’s privatisation proposal.

Following LTB 15/09 sent on the 9th January, we have now written to Adam Crozier calling for a summit meeting between the leaders of our respective organisations to address the industrial and employee relations issues raised by the Hooper Report. The intention is for this letter to form part of a communication that will be sent to all MP’s designed to assist in growing support for the Early Day Motion. The letter will offer Royal Mail an opportunity to sit down with the Union and reach a new collective agreement on modernisation. The letter will expose Royal Mail’s attempts with our members and all external bodies to pigeonhole the Union as anti all forms of modernisation.


A copy of the letter is reproduced overleaf:-



“Dear Adam

In light of the Hooper Report I am calling for an urgent Industrial Relations Summit meeting between the leaders of our respective organisations.

Whilst the Union does not accept some key elements of Hooper’s Report, including partial privatisation, we are in total agreement that CWU members and Royal Mail will only secure a successful future if there is a fundamental change to the current industrial and employee relations environment.

The CWU is ready and willing to set a new course for industrial relations and will continue to support the modernisation of the company, providing there are proper negotiations that culminate in a new Collective Agreement. This will build upon and honour the commitments made in last year’s deal.

Modernisation must be jointly managed in a way that provides CWU members with the best possible job security, terms and conditions. Modernisation must lead to improved postal services, grasp the opportunities to grow new business and sustain the Universal Service.

However, we can only succeed if Royal Mail demonstrates they are also willing to change their approach. This means the company must work with the Union and act upon the serious criticisms levelled against it by Hooper. These criticisms included management’s failure to engage Unions and the workforce and management’s lack of transparency over their modernisation plans and the company’s finances.

You will be aware that prior to the Hooper Report there were several exchanges of correspondence between Mark Higson your Managing Director and myself, to try and set up a series of meetings. Unfortunately, Mark has not yet confirmed dates for these meetings despite the fact that the Union called off industrial action before Christmas. Our proposal for an Industrial Relations Summit will compliment and pave the way for a more productive meeting with Mark and his team. We will be able to focus specifically on the industrial relations challenges highlighted by the Hooper Report.

It has never been more important that we signal, at the highest level, our joint commitment to make a fresh start.

Given the gravity of the situation, we are agreeable, if you believe it would help, to facilitate our Summit proposal through an independent Chair.

I am ready to discuss with you how we could frame the agenda to ensure we have a positive outcome.

I look forward to your early response.


Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)”




APPENDIX E


SUMMARY OF THE HOOPER REPORT KEY FINDINGS
(PREPARED BY THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT)


The Hooper report on Postal liberalisation acknowledges the importance of a universal postal service and agrees with the CWU that it is under threat and that modernisation of Royal Mail is essential.

The report goes on to make the following claims:

There should be no substantive changes to the universal service; six deliveries a week should be remain.

A universal service support fund should not be introduced.

Postal competition is not Royal Mail’s most significant problem. Royal Mail lost £500m in operating profit to other forms of competition in 2007-08, five times the operating profit lost to postal competition. [The £100m estimated loss is attributed to Royal Mail’s figures. Its reliability is questionable given the report’s following claim].

There is insufficient accurate cost data to assess whether or not Royal Mail subsidises downstream access competitors via the access price.

Royal Mail is less efficient than many of its European counterparts. Inefficiency is attributed to the following:

Size of mail centre and delivery network
Insufficient walk sorting and sequencing
Working practices – cumulative effect of local agreements
Pay being 20% higher than market rates [appropriate justification of this figure is not provided]
Ongoing pension contributions

Royal Mail is the least profitable Western European postal operator. [The report claims EU operators make an average 13.5% operating profit compared to 0% at Royal Mail. This is an average of TNT and Deutsche Post’s profits and ignores a number of facts, not least that the figure covers a period during which neither operator faced full competition].

Radical reform to the network is inevitable and Royal Mail will need access to further funding to achieve this.

Without faster modernisation Royal Mail is very likely to become subject to forced restructuring under European rules.

Royal Mail must be able to respond quickly to structural changes in the market by tackling inefficiencies, the pension deficit and the difficult relations between the business, regulator and unions.

Recommendations

The Hooper report goes on to make the following policy recommendations:

Royal Mail’s first priority must be transformation. There is currently too much resistance to change; Royal Mail must change the culture of the organisation, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Modernisation will involve a radical change to Royal Mail’s network. International experience suggests the universal service could be provided with half the current mail centres and up to one-third fewer delivery offices.

Royal Mail’s second priority should be to diversify, finding new sources of revenue either by providing related products or expanding to cover a wider geographical area.

Royal Mail needs the following to modernise quickly and effectively:

Commercial confidence: Removal of the threat of political intervention and enable management to make decisions on an entirely commercial basis. Modernisation of industrial relations; effective engagement between management and unions over long-term strategy.

Access to capital: Royal Mail must be able to quickly and easily raise capital. Government funding is very constrained. Private finance is more flexible and tolerant of risk.

Access to corporate experience: Royal Mail must be able to access the corporate experience of private-sector companies who have successfully managed change on
a similarly complex and challenging scale.

Royal Mail should enter into a strategic partnership with one or more private sector companies with such demonstrable experience of transforming a major, preferably network, business. The details of such a partnership are for the Government to negotiate. [No analysis is given of the long-term financial implications of selling a potentially lucrative stake in the business at this time. Equally, no evaluation is given of the relevance of ‘state aid’ restrictions in the current climate of Government intervention in markets].

Post Office Ltd should remain wholly in the public sector.

The Government should tackle the historic pension deficit because of its severe implications for Royal Mail and therefore the universal service. This must be linked to the achievement of modernisation. [Government intervention over the pension deficit will help provide the revenue to achieve modernisation; intervention is not inherently dependent on acceptance of the report’s proposals].

A new regulatory regime is needed. Responsibility for regulating the postal sector should pass from Postcomm to Ofcom. Ideally an Ofcom-designed regulatory regime should be in place for the start of the next price control in 2010.

There is insufficient evidence of price discrimination in the postal market to justify the separation of Royal Mail into upstream and downstream (in a model similar to that of BT Openreach). However, greater accounting separation within Royal Mail is desirable.

VAT is a matter for Government and the EU VAT directive. However, there is a strong case for reconsidering the current scope of the exemption.

Parliamentary accountability for the protection of the universal service should be strengthened. The regulator should report on an annual basis to the BERR Select Committee.







APPENDIX F



A COMPENDIUM OF RELEVANT COMMUNICATIONS SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF THE REPORT

Letter to Branches




No: 015/09
Ref: 24207
Date: 9th January 2009



TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS


Dear Colleague

Industrial Relations Summit Meeting – The Hooper Report

In light of the Hooper Report the Postal Executive has agreed that the Union should write to the Chief Executive of Royal Mail calling for an urgent Industrial Relations Summit meeting between the leaders of our respective organisations.

Whilst we do not accept Hooper’s clichéd portrayal of the Union, we are in total agreement that CWU members and Royal Mail will only be successful if there is a fundamental change to the current industrial and employee relations environment.

The CWU is ready and willing to set a new course for industrial relations and will support the modernisation of the company, providing there are proper negotiations that culminate in a new National Agreement. This must ensure sensible change can be managed in a way that provides CWU members with the best possible job security, terms and conditions. Furthermore, that agreement must lead to improved postal services, opportunities to grow new business and a sustainable Universal Service.

However, for this Union initiative to work Royal Mail must finally demonstrate they are also prepared to change their approach.

The Union will urge the company to reflect and act upon the serious criticisms levelled against them by Hooper. This includes management’s failure to engage Unions and the workforce and management’s lack of transparency over their modernisation plans and the company’s finances.

Given the gravity of the situation the Union will make it clear we are agreeable, if necessary, to facilitate our proposal for a Summit meeting through an independent Chair.

We will keep you advised of developments and a full report will be made at next week’s National Briefing. Please ensure this LTB is circulated to all Union Reps and workplaces.

Yours sincerely



Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)

Letter to Branches




No. 1015/2008
Ref. 24207
Date: 23RD December 2008


TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS



Dear Colleague

THE UNION’S RESPONSE TO THE HOOPER REPORT AND THE GOVERNMENT’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO PRIVATISE ROYAL MAIL

The Postal Executive has today taken some important decisions in relation to the structure on how we move our campaign forward. These will be explained in due course.

We have also agreed that we will hold a National Briefing with a provisional date of the 15th January 2009.

Final arrangements on the venue and attendees etc will be confirmed as early as possible during week commencing 5th January 2009.

Yours sincerely


Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)









Letter to Branches




No. 1007/08
Ref. 24207
Date: 22nd December 2008


TO ALL CWU BRANCHES



Dear Colleague

THE HOOPER REPORT

The purpose of this LTB is to advise you of developments since the publication of the Hooper Report last week.

Meeting with the Secretary of State Lord Mandelson on Friday 19th December

We met Lord Mandelson on Friday 19th December and he told us that although the Government had accepted, in principle, the three Hooper recommendations; there were no detailed proposals on either the possibility of a Joint Venture, pensions or the new regulatory regime to replace Postcomm.

Lord Mandelson said that the Government would invite the Union to be involved in direct discussions over how all of the recommendations are taken forward early in the New Year. Lord Mandelson said it was very important, to Government, that the workforce were satisfied over the final outcome.

The Secretary of State said the Government was very aware that the Union had the potential to campaign within the Parliamentary Labour Party and the public to derail any Joint Venture proposal. He cautioned us against taking such a course of action. Lord Mandelson confirmed that the Government’s position was that this was a package of measures that had to be implemented together or not at all.

The Union explained that our members were very concerned about the Government’s proposals and we left the Secretary of State with a letter setting out a range of questions, which we believe need to be answered to enable an informed debate.

Communications to CWU Members

We have decided that in order to maximise the impact of a letter to members’ home addresses that this will now be dispatched early in the New Year. In the meantime, please see the attached letter which we would like Branches to circulate to all workplaces as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)

l
A LETTER TO ALL CWU MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

We know you will be worried and anxious over how last week’s Government announcement affects your jobs, pensions and the future of the company.

Once we have had the opportunity to fully consider the Hooper Report, the Union will be writing directly to all CWU members early in the New Year setting out our position and providing you with more information.

In the meantime, we want to convey the following messages which respond to developments since the Government’s announcement.

On Friday 19th December the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary met with Lord Mandelson.

The Secretary of State confirmed that although the Government had accepted, in principle, the three Hooper recommendations; there were no detailed proposals on either the possibility of a Joint Venture, pensions or the new regulatory regime to replace Postcomm.

The Secretary of State further confirmed that early in the New Year the Government would invite the Union to be involved in direct discussions over how all of the recommendations are taken forward. Lord Mandelson said it was very important to Government that the workforce were satisfied with the final outcome.

The Union will be organising a nationwide campaign to stop the Joint Venture and partial privatisation of Royal Mail. As part of our campaign we will put forward an alternative proposal, which will ensure Royal Mail can be successful with full public ownership. Key to this will be to build on our success in getting the Government to face up to its responsibilities on pensions.

Royal Mail’s latest propaganda on what the Government’s announcement means to you is both premature and deliberately misleading.

The Hooper Report is critical of Royal Mail in the following areas:-

Hooper states that management does not have sufficient expertise to run a postal operation.
Hooper states that there is a complete lack of transparency over Royal Mail’s finances.
Hooper states that Royal Mail has failed to properly engage the Union and the workforce.

We believe Royal Mail’s position is really about the exit strategy of some Board members. We are prepared to play our part in improving industrial relations. However, we remain opposed to Royal Mail’s slash and burn approach to so called modernisation.


Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)
Letter to Branches




No. 992/2008
Ref. 24207
Date: 17th December 2008

TO: ALL CWU BRANCHES





Dear Colleague

THE HOOPER REPORT – GOVERNMENT STATEMENT

Please find attached to this LTB a letter setting out the Union’s initial reaction to the Hooper Report.

It is essential that Branches ensure the letter is given the widest circulation, as a matter of urgency.

You will see that the Union will also be writing direct to the members’ home addresses next week.

Yours sincerely




Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)






l

LETTER TO ALL CWU MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

RE: HOOPER REPORT – GOVERNMENT STATEMENT

The purpose of this letter is to set out the Union’s initial reaction to the Hooper Report, its recommendations and the Government’s position.

Six months ago Hooper published his interim report with the headline that competition had not worked. Six months later, in a report that has clearly been influenced by Government, any notion that competition is or has ever been a problem has been airbrushed out of history. This is a dishonest attempt by Government to cover the short comings of their own failed policies.

The Government’s statement that they accept the recommendations and will seek a strategic partnership with a European competitor is a betrayal of their Manifesto Commitment. The idea that Royal Mail can only be successful in the future through the expertise of our European competitors is total nonsense. The Union remains opposed to any form of privatisation and will campaign vigorously to stop the Joint Venture.

The Union acknowledges that we must find a resolution to the growing pension crisis with an estimated deficit in 2009 of £7 billion. We were the first to campaign for the Government to face up to its responsibilities on pensions and we welcome this development. However, we want more information about the detail of their proposal. We see this as an opportunity to create fresh momentum in not only helping the company’s future finances but also improving our members’ pension arrangements.

The Union welcomes the end of Postcomm’s regulatory regime. However, we require further information on how Ofcom will operate and in particular how this will help sustain the Universal Service going forward.

A full and considered response will be made by the union's national leadership. The union will be campaigning to ensure that the government's manifesto commitment not to privatise Royal Mail is upheld. We have received reports of dissensions within the Cabinet, and inside the Whips office on these proposals. Jim McGovern MP for Dundee West has resigned from his position as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Pat McFadden in opposition to the proposals. A meeting has been arranged with Lord Mandelson for Friday. The group of CWU sponsored MPs has met and agreed to campaign against the proposals. The TUC General Council; met today and reaffirmed its opposition to the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Next Steps

We will be writing direct to our members’ home addresses next week to explain the Union’s position in more detail.

We will be immediately calling upon the Government to honour the Manifesto Commitment and engage the Union in direct talks on the future of the industry. The Postal Executive will meet next Tuesday to determine what other actions are necessary to take our campaign forward.

Yours sincerely
Billy Hayes Dave Ward
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)