Defending the Post Office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news ... ull/134794" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

Post Office customers inconvenienced by tomorrow's walkout by Communication Workers Union (CWU) members at hundreds of Crown offices should understand that the strike is for their benefit as well as for staff.

Crown offices are in effect the public face of the Post Office, being sited on prominent streets in the centre of cities and towns.

That is precisely the attraction to the Post Office top brass who have already divvied up over £15 million in bonuses between them and are aiming for even higher profits than the £61 million half-yearly bonanza registered last September.

It's the hard work by thousands of staff that contributed to those figures, but, as with the private sector, PO bosses convince themselves it is the sheer genius of a tiny group of people at the top that generates profits.

They would like to privatise the entire operation, as would the conservative coalition and as new Labour business secretary Peter Mandelson tried to do.

Their lack of success has been the result of massive popular resistance coordinated by the CWU, MPs and countless local groups aware of the catastrophe that this would entail for communities all over Britain.

It might well be profitable for whoever buys up this much-loved public institution, especially if they are able to liquidate the concrete assets built up over generations by collective public contribution.

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Privatised utilities such as the water industry were successful in maximising windfall profits through a fire sale of real estate assets to benefit the oligopoly of privateers.

Those with their beady eye on the Post Office have similar intentions of putting up for sale the prime sites on which many Crown offices stand.

Shopkeepers are not generally renowned for their zeal in defending the public sector, but they understand the implications for their own businesses if Crown offices are closed or franchised to less prominent locations.

Town and city centres register a notable footfall because of the drawing power of Crown offices. Local shops enjoy a spin-off effect.

Shopkeepers know that these centres could contract and spiral downwards into commercial deserts if the Crown offices go.

Ongoing public support for the Crown offices, along with continued staff determination to stand firm against the industry's destructive top management, will ensure that this issue cannot be swept under the carpet.

It would be better for all concerned if the Post Office board were to swallow its pride and pomposity and agree to sit down with CWU negotiators to negotiate a mutually acceptable way forward.

[UnhappyGremlin]

They don't want a mutually acceptable way forward.
What they want is for the staff to bow down to the superior knowledge and wisdom of the board that quite clearly knows best.
And isn't in any way prepping one of the biggest asset stripping and profiteering campaigns ever, to line the pockets of a very select few.
All the while the staff will be screwed over, and customers will suffer a much deteriorated service, with less offices being available with each passing day.