The Guardian-wild cat strikes spread

[terrace]

The Guardian-wild cat strikes spread
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http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2188476,00.html
Gregor Gall, a professor of industrial relations at Hertfordshire University, said there was a "pressing need" for government intervention because of the entrenched positions of both sides in the dispute.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Postal workers in London and Liverpool today took part in a second day of wildcat strike action, causing further delays to mail deliveries in a continuing dispute over new shift patterns.

A 48-hour official strike ended early yesterday morning, but there were unofficial walkouts during the day.

The wildcat action spread today to 30 delivery offices in the capital and on Merseyside. Royal Mail said workers in the rest of the country's 1,500 delivery offices were working normally.

Staff have begun clearing the backlog of mail the official strike caused.

The unofficial action began yesterday after a new row broke out when workers arrived at work to be told their shift times had been changed.

Staff at offices in east London and Nine Elms, in central London, were joined today by more colleagues in Liverpool, where wildcat strikes escalated from yesterday's 10 sorting offices to 17 across the city.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has called a series of official strikes from next Monday in its long-running dispute with Royal Mail over pay, jobs and pensions.

The prime minister yesterday told the workers there was "no justification" for the dispute continuing and said they should get back to work.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) criticised his comments, saying they would not help resolve the dispute.

Mark Walsh, the Merseyside branch secretary of the CWU, explained why workers were refusing to work today.

He said: "Staff came into work and were told that their starting hours had been changed and they would not be paid for some time and they would be expected to stay later at the end of the day.

"These changes had been imposed on the staff without their agreement, and they decided of their own accord not to go to work today.

He denied that the CWU had lost control of the dispute.

"We have offered a compromise by saying to management that we will accept their working hours if we are given two weeks to come up with alternative proposals," he said.

"That offer has been rejected, and that is where we are this morning. Talks are ongoing with local management, and we hope to have a mass meeting with our members later today."

Outside Liverpool's main sorting office, around 100 staff were refusing to enter the building.

The total number of staff thought to be taking part in the wildcat strike is around 400.

Gregor Gall, a professor of industrial relations at Hertfordshire University, said there was a "pressing need" for government intervention because of the entrenched positions of both sides in the dispute.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If the service is to be resumed to its normal state, then I think the government, as the single shareholder, does need to step in, and not just call for an end to the strike but actually work towards resolving the issues."

Professor Gall said the prime minister should instruct Royal Mail managers to give some ground in an attempt to find a compromise.

[superman]

The Post Office test


The dispute encapsulates a huge question: should profit always be put ahead of people's needs?

Tony Benn
Thursday October 11, 2007
The Guardian


Let us be absolutely clear. The Post Office is being systematically and deliberately destroyed. And the British government is standing by and letting it happen.

It was Charles II who established the General Post Office in 1660, and Rowland Hill who introduced the penny stamp (1840) and recognised that the cost of handling mail was not the distance the letters travelled but the number of times they were handled. The postal service in the 19th century was the equivalent of the internet. Local post offices were a public service too: in the early days, if you paid a shilling the postmistress would write a letter for you and explain how to deal with social security forms.

But now this great service is being challenged. First by the EU, which has insisted on liberalisation and demanded competition. If there were real competition, however, the competitors would have to put up their own blue pillar boxes, employ postal staff and open post offices, deliver to the most outlying areas at the same price, and deliver braille materials, free, for the blind.

Of course none of that is happening, and the "competitors" are being allowed to pass on their bulk post for the Royal Mail to deliver and being charged less than the 34p we pay for a stamp, thus being subsidised by the Post Office. Post office closures are going on apace and postal workers are threatened with the sack, a worsening of conditions, and the prospect of a reduced pension. Meanwhile the government does nothing, and that is why members of the Communication Workers' Union are striking.

In the old days the postmaster general was answerable to the Commons, with parliamentary questions about deliveries. It was not a very good system because the Treasury collected the money for stamps sold and gave the Post Office a grant to run the service - which is why I, in my then position in that role, recommended it be turned into a public corporation. It was obvious it had to change and expand, which is why we set up the National Data Processing Service, the Giro, which was a public bank run through the Post Office and used its vans in the countryside as buses. The Giro was sold off by Margaret Thatcher, and the Post Office is now concreted in to the mechanical function of delivering mail, while urgent communications now go by electronic means.

The CWU knows better than most the need for change, but in its dealings with this management its members are back to the master-servant relationship that prevailed in industry 200 years ago. If they take action that is "unofficial" they risk being taken to court under Thatcher's anti-union legislation, which New Labour promised to repeal but never did - and I would love to see stronger support for them from all unions, many of which face similar problems.

We are told the Post Office loses money - but so do the police, and if we are going to follow this neoliberal doctrine, what about establishing low-cost private police forces, to challenge the "police monopoly"? This is a big, big issue, and it is a test of our society as to whether we are to organise everything to make a profit, or see that needs are met.

If the Post Office is to be run on a competitive basis, it could charge pounds and not pennies to deliver in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and make those who depend on braille pay the huge charges that the heavy material would attract on a commercial basis.

And if Digby Jones, the former director general of the CBI, can work with the government, what about asking Brendan Barber from the TUC to be postmaster general in New Labour's big tent, which now appears to include Thatcher herself?

· Tony Benn's More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007, has just been published

[strangler]

Not often I agree with Tony Benn but he hits the nail bang on the head here.