Elections 2008 - Delivery of Election Material

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Letter to Branches





No. 281/08
Ref: 535.09
Date: 9th April 2008


To: Branches with POSTAL Members






Dear Colleague,

Elections 2008 - Delivery of Election Material

A recent exchange of correspondence concerning the delivery of election material in connection with the forthcoming local and mayoral elections is attached.

It will be noted that the agreement made in 2005 holds the field and this is also attached for information purposes.

Our letter of 31st March sets out our position with regard to the interpretation of the agreement and any instances of difficulty should be reported to this Headquarters through Divisional Representatives.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 535.09
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson
Assistant Secretary












28 March 2008

Bob Gibson
Assistant Secretary
Communication Workers Union
150 The Broadway
Wimbledon
London
SW19 1RX

Royal Mail Centre
35 Rathbone Place
London
W1T 1HQ



Dear Bob

London Mayoral Election

You wrote this morning asking about the London election. The agreement we reached on 6 April 2005 remains in place and our delivery offices will be using it.

Ordinary poll cards which are presented to us sorted direct to the walk will attract the unit payment. Those which come in the normal post, with stamps or meter franked will not. I have heard that some poll cards might be posted via ‘down stream access’. These would not attract the unit payment as they would go in the normal mail. I’ll let you know if I can get more information about which areas might get DSA poll cards.

We have won the tender to deliver the booklet for the London election which takes place on 1 May. A total of 5.4m will be posted as addressed Walksort2 items and we expect despatches to commence out of YDC on 16 April. The booklet should weigh about 90g. The mailing has not yet been printed as the list of candidates closes this week, however assuming it falls within the scope of our agreement then it will attract the unit payment.


Let me know if you need anything more and I can put you in touch with the experts. I’ve spoken with colleagues in West London and they were very clear about the national agreement, so I guess there was a misunderstanding.

Yours sincerely

Dale Lang
Industrial Relations












Dear Dale,

London Mayoral Elections and UK Local Elections

Thank you for your letter of 28th March.

I welcome your confirmation that our 2005 agreement remains in force in respect of the delivery of election material. I am, however, baffled as to how you can claim that this means that poll cards that happen to come through Downstream access channels are not eligible for payment.

Section 2 of that agreement says “This agreement covers all addressed and un-addressed free election communications marked “ELECTION COMMUNICATIONâ€