Communication Workers Union embraces Kretinsky’s takeover of Royal Mail

[stage3]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/ ... n22.html

Tony Robson

Communication Workers Union (CWU) leaders Dave Ward and Martin Walsh issued a statement Wednesday calling on postal workers to get behind their “engagement plan” and establish a “favourable outcome” in Royal Mail’s takeover by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

Ward and Walsh described the £3.5 billion takeover by Kretinsky’s EP Group in glowing terms as “a major opportunity to influence the future”. They stated this “opportunity” was “made clear” during the CWU’s “meetings with the company, prospective buyer, government, and regulator”.


Daniel Křetínský, Dave Ward, Royal Mail [Photo: Top left: EP Holding / Bottom left: WSWS / Right: CC BY 2.0]
Wednesday’s statement is public confirmation of what the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (PWRFC) has warned since May: that a Labour government would rubber-stamp the takeover and work with the union’s postal executive to ensure an orderly transfer to EP Group’s private equity investors.

Since the EP Group takeover bid was launched the CWU has peddled the fiction that it would be heavily “scrutinised”, but the statement exposes how it was always taken as a done deal—with Ward and Walsh relied upon to maintain confidentiality.

“We need to work on the basis that it is likely the government will clear the takeover bid from the perspective of the national security investigation,” their statement reads.

This is the real face of Labour’s “New Deal for workers”, promoted endlessly by Ward and other CWU officials in the run-up to the general election.

Ward’s claim that the CWU’s “engagement plan” is about mobilising the members’ “collective strength” to “protect jobs and terms and conditions” at Royal Mail is farcical.

Ward and Walsh have lost any right to speak on such matters. They co-authored last year’s Business, Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement with Royal Mail/IDS executives, sabotaging the resistance of more than 100,000 postal workers to brutal company revisions imposed during the 2022-23 national dispute.

Faced with an incipient rebellion against this sellout, it was Ward who assumed the role of chief company attack dog, telling postal workers there was “no plan B” if they voted down the agreement, and declaring that workers would be responsible for the resulting “Armageddon.”


The CWU’s pro-company deal resulted in a bonfire of terms and conditions, the destruction of thousands of jobs and imposition of a two-tier workforce, with all new hires employed on inferior pay and benefits. This paved the way for the takeover bid that followed. Bid documents produced by Kretinsky cite the benefits to investors of reduced labour costs and increased flexibility delivered by the union.

The architects of this miserable betrayal, aimed at transforming the company into an Amazon-style parcel service, now speak about a Royal Mail at a “crossroads”, with thousands of jobs threatened and postal services “at real risk”

Arsonists are in no position to give lectures on fire safety!

Ward and Walsh declare, “Our challenge is to move beyond the impact of the recent dispute.” Having imposed a scorched-earth policy against their members, the only place the CWU bureaucracy is “moving on” to is a direct alliance with Kretinsky’s corporate vultures and asset strippers, facilitated by the Starmer government.

The CWU’s eight-point list of proposals offered as the framework for a negotiated agreement with Kretinsky makes this clear. They include the fob-off call for “harmonisation of new entrant’s terms and conditions” within a totally unspecified “agreed time frame”.

It is equally grotesque for them to talk about delivering an “above inflation pay rise” having agreed an uplift of just 10 percent for postal workers over three years (accepting the 2 percent imposed unilaterally in 2022-3) which expires next April. This de facto pay cut has transformed Royal Mail into a minimum-wage employer with the hourly rate for new entrants standing at just 54 pence above the current National Living Wage.

The union’s additional demands, including restoring quality of service and alternate Saturdays off for delivery workers, bear all the imprints of a PR exercise aimed at promoting the takeover, with promises of jam tomorrow.


Communication Workers Union Deputy General Secretary (Postal) Martin Walsh, (left) and CWU General Secretary Dave Ward speaking at a CWU Live event [Photo: screenshot of video: CWU/Facebook]
The CWU launched its “engagement” with Kretinsky and the Labour Party back in May. Through months of secret talks, postal workers have been kept in the dark. But Wednesday’s statement indicates the extent of their backroom planning—with Ward and Walsh citing their “regular” negotiations “with EP Group and Royal Mail management separately over multiple issues including job security, USO, future ownership models, pay, new entrants’ terms and more.”

What are these “multiple issues” and what exactly has the CWU offered up at our expense?


The £3.5 billion takeover by Kretinsky is a calculated investment. EP Group specialises in buying up undervalued assets and injecting capital to make long-term profits. The deal has been leveraged through the borrowings of £2.3 billion from major investors who will demand their pound of flesh from the workforce.

Kretinsky is aiming to build the “Amazon of Europe”, integrating Royal Mail with EP Group’s 31 percent share of the Dutch postal service and the all-Europe GLS parcel arm of IDS. He has already announced planned investment in a network of 20,000 drop and delivery boxes to replace door-to-door delivery.

The nonsense of a trickle-down effect for postal workers has already been exploded over the last year and follows a decade of privatisation that saw Royal Mail used as a cash cow by major shareholders and hedge funds. Those who will immediately capitalise on the buy-out—to the tune of millions—will be IDS’s Board of Directors and major investors as they cash in their shares.

The call by the CWU for “engagement” is a blueprint for a surrender document Mark II, not a call to arms for postal workers. A rank-and-file insurgency must be organised, based on the establishment of a network of workplace committees, jointly mapping out an industrial and political strategy to defeat the EP Group’s plans in alliance with postal and logistics workers across Europe and internationally.

A national strike is in its first week at Canada Post by 55,000 postal workers over a new contract as the national carrier seeks to impose a brutal restructuring of jobs and conditions. Postal workers in America at United States Postal Service confront a renewed drive to gut the mail service and post office network, destroying jobs through increased automation in preparation for privatisation.

In every country the union bureaucracy is working with management and governments to block or isolate opposition to the prioritisation of profits and increased competitiveness. Through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and- File Committees the PWRFC and its affiliates are waging a fight to unify these struggles against the race to the bottom.

IDS chief executive Martin Seidenberg has already signalled new attacks on Royal Mail workers, citing as a pretext the announcement by the Labour government of increased national insurance contributions (NICs) for employers.

Seidenberg, who is expected to rake in £5 million from the EP Group takeover by selling the shares he holds, has stated that the increase in NICs would add £120 million a year to the wage bill of Royal Mail from 2025-6. He described this as a “massive burden”, justifying proposed plans to slash the frequency of letter delivery and cut jobs, and a further hike in costs for service users by increasing the price of stamps. The recent hike in the price of first class stamps to £1.65 was the fifth in three years.

Royal Mail, as one of the largest employers in the UK with a 130,000-strong workforce, is outlining a plan of attack which other corporations and employers will follow and which millions of workers in the private and public sector confront. A fight waged by Royal Mail workers against the CWU-Labour government’s backing for a further dismantling of the postal service in the interests of the capitalist oligarchy personified by Kretinsky would win broad based support in the working class.

[tramssirhc]

Come on then Martin Walsh. Dismantle this.

[scotchy1962]

An interesting read, and perhaps if you didn't spout the far-left crap more people would take heed.
I think the same in terms of Ward and Walsh getting too close to the day to day running and costing of this company, but when you mention committees
and insurgency i just think communist Russia and gulags.
Self preservation seems to be the order of the day for the union, interacting with the company too closely is leading to people deducing collusion.
I am not saying this is happening but is what we are thinking.
Look at the end of the day if the union don't represent or feel like they aren't representing us we can all vote against them by leaving the union, that will focus their minds on the members, but we haven't reached anywhere near that stage yet.

[postslippete]

The Union are unfortunately always between the devils and the deep blue sea of postal workers. They were strongly against a complete reform of the USO last year but have since adopted the corporate stance. They even talk about 'method change' which was the language of Chairman Keith Williams in last year's shareholders meeting. The Union lost whatever bargaining position and creditability it had once we lost the dispute and the sad thing is if we all left the Union we would have no bargaining position at all.

Pardon my ignorance, but I still don't understand what this rank and file insurgency is or how it plans to establish a 'network of workplace committees' to defeat the EP Group's plans in alliance with postal workers across Europe and internationally? No one in my office has ever heard of them. Great article though

[stage3]

An interesting read, and perhaps if you didn't spout the far-left crap more people would take heed.
I think the same in terms of Ward and Walsh getting too close to the day to day running and costing of this company, but when you mention committees
and insurgency i just think communist Russia and gulags.
Self preservation seems to be the order of the day for the union, interacting with the company too closely is leading to people deducing collusion.
I am not saying this is happening but is what we are thinking.
Look at the end of the day if the union don't represent or feel like they aren't representing us we can all vote against them by leaving the union, that will focus their minds on the members, but we haven't reached anywhere near that stage yet.

Thanks for your thoughts on the article. You agree in part that Ward and Walsh are preoccupied with protecting the company bottom line not postal workers independent interests and are perceived as colluding with management. What you are describing is in fact corporatism. From the standpoint of defending workers the CWU has crossed every red line and acts more like a labour syndicate on behalf of the major investors whether under IDS or EP Group. How are postal workers to fight for their collective interests in opposition to this alignment ? Whether its called an insurgency or mobilisation the will of the working class needs to be asserted otherwise it remains totally disenfranchised. The days of Labour governments providing any reforms are over - they provided the ground work for the privatisation and now the takeover by private equity investors. Is it really "far left crap" to oppose the running of society by a capitalist oligarchy which is turning the clock back on everything previous generations of workers won in struggle This is not just happening at RM workers face this everywhere. What you raise about the gulags in "communist Russia" draws a equation between socialism and Stalinism. This confusion does sit on the consciousness on the working class. History shows there was an alternative to the gravedigger of the revolution which was fought for by Trotsky on the basis on international socialism. A familiarity with this is important otherwise the working class is left with TINA. The PWRFC is open to any postal worker regardless of their political outlook who is committed to waging a fight to put workers rights before profit. Building this democratic movement of the rank and file is the way forward rather than resigning from the CWU as individuals to apply pressure on the Ward led bureaucracy which is firmly in the back pocket of the company.

[stage3]

The Union are unfortunately always between the devils and the deep blue sea of postal workers. They were strongly against a complete reform of the USO last year but have since adopted the corporate stance. They even talk about 'method change' which was the language of Chairman Keith Williams in last year's shareholders meeting. The Union lost whatever bargaining position and creditability it had once we lost the dispute and the sad thing is if we all left the Union we would have no bargaining position at all.

Pardon my ignorance, but I still don't understand what this rank and file insurgency is or how it plans to establish a 'network of workplace committees' to defeat the EP Group's plans in alliance with postal workers across Europe and internationally? No one in my office has ever heard of them. Great article though

I am glad you thought the article was great. The PWRFC does not lump together the Ward led bureaucracy with the rank and file. As you say the former have adopted the model of the company and chair over the dismantling of the USO, even using identical language. Neither Ward or Walsh have received a mandate for this. It has been drawn up over tea and biscuits with management. What CWU members are presented with is how this is being spun as in anyway to the advantage of postal workers e.g alternate Saturdays off. Walsh showed his completely indifference on Thursday night at the CWU Live over what the union executive is working to accept - 1,000 redundancies and 6,000 jobs cuts, from what he described as "natural wastage." He is just a company spokesman plain and simple. In terms of the PWRFC I can't account for every DO. What I can say is the video interview with Des Beach the victimised delivery worker the CWU abandoned to the management framework received over 2,000 views. We've held regular on line meetings since last April with speakers from postal and logistics workers in the US, Canada, Australia. Through the World Socialist Web Site we've published testimony from hundreds of postal workers. We don't have the resources of the CWU which uses its own members dues for broadcasting pro-company messaging but I think it would be fair to say we have developed a reputation as the voice of postal workers against the sellout bureaucracy,

[Tman]

I think it would be fair to say we have developed a reputation as the voice of postal workers against the sellout bureaucracy,

Only in your fevered dreams comrade.

[Sean06]

I think it would be fair to say we have developed a reputation as the voice of postal workers against the sellout bureaucracy,

Only in your fevered dreams comrade.

Deluded..

[scotchy1962]

An interesting read, and perhaps if you didn't spout the far-left crap more people would take heed.
I think the same in terms of Ward and Walsh getting too close to the day to day running and costing of this company, but when you mention committees
and insurgency i just think communist Russia and gulags.
Self preservation seems to be the order of the day for the union, interacting with the company too closely is leading to people deducing collusion.
I am not saying this is happening but is what we are thinking.
Look at the end of the day if the union don't represent or feel like they aren't representing us we can all vote against them by leaving the union, that will focus their minds on the members, but we haven't reached anywhere near that stage yet.

Thanks for your thoughts on the article. You agree in part that Ward and Walsh are preoccupied with protecting the company bottom line not postal workers independent interests and are perceived as colluding with management. What you are describing is in fact corporatism. From the standpoint of defending workers the CWU has crossed every red line and acts more like a labour syndicate on behalf of the major investors whether under IDS or EP Group. How are postal workers to fight for their collective interests in opposition to this alignment ? Whether its called an insurgency or mobilisation the will of the working class needs to be asserted otherwise it remains totally disenfranchised. The days of Labour governments providing any reforms are over - they provided the ground work for the privatisation and now the takeover by private equity investors. Is it really "far left crap" to oppose the running of society by a capitalist oligarchy which is turning the clock back on everything previous generations of workers won in struggle This is not just happening at RM workers face this everywhere. What you raise about the gulags in "communist Russia" draws a equation between socialism and Stalinism. This confusion does sit on the consciousness on the working class. History shows there was an alternative to the gravedigger of the revolution which was fought for by Trotsky on the basis on international socialism. A familiarity with this is important otherwise the working class is left with TINA. The PWRFC is open to any postal worker regardless of their political outlook who is committed to waging a fight to put workers rights before profit. Building this democratic movement of the rank and file is the way forward rather than resigning from the CWU as individuals to apply pressure on the Ward led bureaucracy which is firmly in the back pocket of the company.

Holy Mary mother of god and the little baby jesus, WTF was this bunch of left-wing communist bull-s**t all about.
Any wonder nobody knows who you are.

[world class male]

top & bottom of it all is really we are screwed either way whatever way the takeover does
our mediocre pay rise for 25/26 is already ruined further because rm will blame the ni contribution hike and offer us at best 3% with more strings attached than a tampax factory
cwu'hq & rmg don't give a toss about us
the cwu will be dead for postal workers in a few years with the older end guys retiring or leaving and become irrelivant,
the newer contracted folk won't be even interested in joining any union because it'll be a minimum wage (or a few pennies more) job
meanwhile the cwu will continue posting stongly worded letters delivered too late to do anything

[moon71]

As much as the future doesn't look bright, believing the PWRFC have answers is a false belief.

They are at war with every postal union in the world, with exact same language of sell outs, unions in management pocket, collusion, the list goes on. It's all available to read.

A better answer is trickle down prosperity. And that's a false belief too.

It realy doesn't look good however the cards are played.

[ted_e_bear]

top & bottom of it all is really we are screwed either way whatever way the takeover does
our mediocre pay rise for 25/26 is already ruined further because rm will blame the ni contribution hike and offer us at best 3% with more strings attached than a tampax factory
cwu'hq & rmg don't give a toss about us
the cwu will be dead for postal workers in a few years with the older end guys retiring or leaving and become irrelivant,
the newer contracted folk won't be even interested in joining any union because it'll be a minimum wage (or a few pennies more) job
meanwhile the cwu will continue posting stongly worded letters delivered too late to do anything

I've banked that analogy to use in the future....."more strings than a Tampax factory"

[stage3]

As much as the future doesn't look bright, believing the PWRFC have answers is a false belief.

They are at war with every postal union in the world, with exact same language of sell outs, unions in management pocket, collusion, the list goes on. It's all available to read.

A better answer is trickle down prosperity. And that's a false belief too.

It realy doesn't look good however the cards are played.

"Believing the PWRFC have answers is a false belief". Why such a warning ? You have constantly trolled the thread discussions on statements and articles by the PWRFC insisting that it is non-existent and no one is listening. You clearly don't even "believe" your own propaganda.

And here is the crux you don't have any answer yourself. Trickle down prosperity is a "better answer" but that is also "false." Brilliant. So your message is workers are screwed anyway and just have to live with it. This is why you rant against the PWRFC because it fights for an alternative rather than the pro-company message and prioritisation of profits by Ward and Walsh. They only refer to what is happening at postal services around the world to justify cutting the USO with massive job cuts and turning RM into an Amazon type parcel courier service. This is precisely what postal workers globally are fighting against like the strike by 55,000 at Canada Post or in America against privatisation of USPS. The PWRFC is informing RM workers about all of this and seeking to unite them in a fight against the race to the bottom which the union bureaucracy in every country leads. This is through the International Workers Alliance for Rank and File Committees. Thanks for pointing this out. I've put the link below, as you've said its available to read.
https://www.wsws.org/en/special/pages/r ... rkers.html

[moon71]

As much as the future doesn't look bright, believing the PWRFC have answers is a false belief.

They are at war with every postal union in the world, with exact same language of sell outs, unions in management pocket, collusion, the list goes on. It's all available to read.

A better answer is trickle down prosperity. And that's a false belief too.

It realy doesn't look good however the cards are played.

"Believing the PWRFC have answers is a false belief". Why such a warning ? You have constantly trolled the thread discussions on statements and articles by the PWRFC insisting that it is non-existent and no one is listening. You clearly don't even "believe" your own propaganda.

And here is the crux you don't have any answer yourself. Trickle down prosperity is a "better answer" but that is also "false." Brilliant. So your message is workers are screwed anyway and just have to live with it. This is why you rant against the PWRFC because it fights for an alternative rather than the pro-company message and prioritisation of profits by Ward and Walsh. They only refer to what is happening at postal services around the world to justify cutting the USO with massive job cuts and turning RM into an Amazon type parcel courier service. This is precisely what postal workers globally are fighting against like the strike by 55,000 at Canada Post or in America against privatisation of USPS. The PWRFC is informing RM workers about all of this and seeking to unite them in a fight against the race to the bottom which the union bureaucracy in every country leads. This is through the International Workers Alliance for Rank and File Committees. Thanks for pointing this out. I've put the link below, as you've said its available to read.
https://www.wsws.org/en/special/pages/r ... rkers.html

I have plenty of answers, most you won't like, or even scorn hate upon.

Sadly this is just a job. I know hundreds of postal workers. Some on delivery new contracts have left. Some have been super numeries in mail centres, who faced redundancy, who bettered themselves and drove lorries for logistics on big money, some just left. It's just a job and what you make of it is upto you.

Accepting the situation is paramount. I go to collect shops where I see a mountain of yodel work but nothing for Royal Mail. Let's talk about letters, there's none in the postboxes and in all honesty dsa halved overnight when the change happened. It's all about parcels now, to not accept this is delusional. We are a parcel business, delivering letters.

We can either engage with the management and hope for better things, or we can have the attitude that we'd rather smash it up than change. I don't know what you folks saw in the strike, but it was clear as day to me, the RM, would rather smash the company to bits and start completely afresh than surrender to the union. And they nearly did until the sell out agreement. Just imagine, 130,000 postal worker re employed on new contracts, that's what the PWRFC hope for in my eyes. Fight and lose everything.

Then we accepted the deal. People ain't happy about it, but again, if you hate it that much just leave.

Thinking an unrecognised organisation will have any sway in postal life in the UK is laughable.

But most of all, the two tier workforce is my pain, raise them up at my expense, I'd do it. But most people are selfish.

Simply put I have little to raise hope, pretty much the same as the PWRFC.

[SpacePhoenix]

The GDPR regs made a massive impact when they were brought in, it caused an instant massive drop in the number of DSA letters