Royal Mail in 11th hour bid to stop postal strike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/c ... 3A41%3A720" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

REGIONAL bosses at Royal Mail today issued an 11th hour appeal to try and avert tomorrow's strike by 10,000 London postal workers.

The walkout is in response to job cuts the CWU union claims are being made in London even before an automation system is brought in to speed up how letters are sorted.

"We urge them not to call our people out on strike action," Royal Mail's London HQ said in a statement to the East London Advertiser today.

"A strike will not modernise Royal Mail. It can only hurt customers and damage our drive to build a sustainable future in the competitive marketplace and will leave Royal Mail far less able to protect full-time jobs."

POST CODE

New hi-tech computers which sort out deliveries by post code in 'walk order' sequences down to the last house will revolutionise the postal service while it struggles with business falling by 10 per cent a year.

But jobs are already being threatened in London before the computerised automation is installed, the union claims. Royal Mail denies announcing any redundancies.

The union's deputy general secretary Dave Ward issued a statement at lunchtime blaming Royal Mail for breaking a 2007 agreement to negotiate on modernisation.

IMPASSE

"Royal Mail can't have it both ways," he said. "We are now seeing cuts in the postal industry, but not modernisation."

The impasse means tomorrow's strike goes ahead in East London as well as north, west and south-east London, with Royal Mail giving online advice on how to deal with the dispute.

Two major sorting offices in central London remain working because of strike balloting problems, Mount Pleasant in Clerkenwell and Rathbone Place in the West End. The South London centre at Battersea is also operating.

[EDDIE 666]

I think its a major issue that all of London is not out on strike.My delivery office is out on strike tomorrow but what impact is there going to be when some of the mail centers are working???...We fully support the strike and the union but to make the maximum impact we should all be out together....how does it go london calling?????

[Martin Walsh]

Eddie the anti trade union laws stopped Nine Elms , the Mount and Rathbone from striking even thou they had overwhelming yes votes.

Fact is the rest of us had to take strike action with 28days or we would have all had to re ballot under the law. This strike is the first of a sustained fight a battle which if we dont win then we will not have a future in this industry.

We have over 10 000 workers out on strike tommorrow and the ballot papers will be going out on Monday for the other 3 mail centres. We have other dates planned and we will announce them shortly once the other offices have recieved their yes votes.

Plus it our intention if the Labour Government contiues to allow Royal Mail to attack London and other places around the UK we wont wait for the NEC to react we will ballot the London membership on whether we stop funding the Labour party and stop the politcal levy if we have to thats how serious we are taking this fight.

So Eddie whilst its not ideal the stike will have a major impact on Royal Mail it will cost them and it will damage them.

[bexhil palace]

Good luck to you all.
We are all behind you

[weetrogg]

As long as we stick to the rules of their game(government/RM) we havent got a prayer!!!
F**k lawful or unlawful, its time we went out unofficial, if not there is no chance of forcing RM into an acceptable agreement The government appointed leighton, crozier and brydon etc for one reason, and that is because they will follow out government diktats!!! It is better to stand and fight and die on your feet, than kow tow and die on your knees DISCLAIMER: These are the ramblings of a mad man, who's drunk too much beer, take no notice Three cheers for the boys an girls at SK cdo who have voted today for industrial action Please ignore as these are the doodelings of a drunken fool

[BELIAL]

Many a true word spoken in Best

[weetrogg]

Surely you dont think i was being serious do you belial???


WE are the union

[BELIAL]

Nah, I ,like you would work for nothing and give up all my pension entitlements just to ensure little Adam got his Bermuda break this quarter The sooner this union is smashed and we are all on 2minute contracts and working for the postmans tanner( a revolutionary ,new, and thoroughly modern concept, never ever been tried before ),the sooner we can provide our masters and betters with the limitless profit they crave( Cant find the "I'm a total w****r" smilie )

[Night Tonic]

That would be superfluous, and whats an 'Anti-Trade Union Law'??

[BELIAL]

YAWN

[baldrick]

and whats an 'Anti-Trade Union Law'??

The anti-Union legislation brought in by the Thatcher Government, and opposed by
the then Labour Opposition (notably by one Tony Blair), who promised to repeal it
when they took office.
Of course they never did, and one Tony Blair PM even boasted to Big Business leaders
that Britain has the most restrictive anti-Union laws in the world.

[borders]

That would be superfluous, and whats an 'Anti-Trade Union Law'??

How the British state legislated against free trade unions in the last two decades

For the last 23 years, successive governments have consistently introduced legislation to curtail the action of free trade unionism in the UK. Theirs was a long-term strategy in response to the growth in militant trade unionism from the 1970s. The laws introduced in the 1980s curtailed existing immunities and made solidarity action illegal.


But by the 1990s, the Conservative Government felt confident enough to bring in laws that would fundamentally undermine the role of free trade unions and their rights to organise and take action - in the face of a wave of privatisation which changed the British industrial landscape so much that not only were whole sectors decimated but whole communities destroyed as well.

What follows is a brief resume of the legislation introduced during this period and its initial impact upon the workers it was intended for.
The 1980 Employment Act

Abolished trade union recognition rights and restricted picket line numbers to only six.

Made solidarity action illegal.
Severely restricted the closed shop, which now had to be approved by 85% of the workforce.
The 1982 Employment Act

Introduced an extremely limited notion of a 'trade dispute' which when coupled with the 1980 Act, outlawed most forms of solidarity action including international solidarity with workers who are employed by the same multinational companies - one of many precursors to the rapid progress of globalised capital that we are witness to today.

Limited the definition of a legal strike whereby workers could only take action against their immediate employer. A strike had to be wholly related to pay and conditions, dismissals, redundancies, sackings, disciplinaries or union membership. Workers could not strike for political reasons.
Made trade unions legally liable to pay disabling damages from strikes. Fines of up to £250,000 could be charged. If fines were not paid, the union's entire funds could be sequestrated.
The 1984 Trade Union Act

Made it illegal to strike without a ballot and ordered unions to instruct their members that they are breaking their contract of employment if they vote in favour of strike action.

Imposed on unions a ten-yearly ballot to decide whether to have a political fund ie. whether union money could be spent on political campaigning and affiliation
The 1988 Employment Act

Imposed postal ballots - as against workplace or branch meetings - to decide on union executive elections or decisions on political funds (even though workplace ballots get a higher rate of participation).

Made it illegal for unions to expel or discipline members who refuse to participate in industrial action after a legal ballot.
The 1989 Employment Act

Restricted time off for trade union reps.

Introduced a pre-hearing assessment for industrial tribunals to scrutinise the validity of any applicant's case.
The 1990 Employment Act

Made pre-entry closed shops illegal, resulting in a gradual erosion of trade union membership.

Held trade unions financially responsible for walk-outs and unofficial action unless they publicly disowned a dispute.
Allowed the sacking of stewards and key union members involved in unofficial action.
Made all secondary action illegal.
The 1993 Employment Act

Introduced a minimum six-week delay between the decision to ballot and the date of any industrial action.

Required that members give written confirmation that they want their union dues automatically deducted from their wage packets.
Gave people the right to sue unions if industrial action 'damages' them.
Abolished wages councils which previously had afforded some protection to workers in some sectors.
All this went hand-in-hand with the massive programme of privatisation of almost all of the previously nationalised industries in Britain, and the unceasing barrage of Thatcherite propaganda in the Tory press. It has resulted in a large decline in union membership, massive growth in the power of private firms and global capital which has lobbied (bribed) successive governments relentlessly.



The New Labour Government has kept the Tory anti-union laws virtually untouched, with only a few minor amendments (such as limited rights to recognition). Britain still has the most draconian union legislation in Europe - a fact that Tony Blair boasts about!

[Night Tonic]

That'll be the same one that saw 900 workers at Lindsey sacked today then.

[borders]

and here is the other view , to remain impartial you understand....==============Outflanking the unions
The new Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher, was determined to break union power once and for all. In her view British industries' well-known low productivity was mainly due to trade-union attitudes and, restrictive practices. She saw the 'union bosses' of the time as 'socialist politicians first, second and third'. So, she decided to 'appeal over their heads to their members'. She made a strategic break with all post-war governments and discarded 'the whole approach based on prices and incomes controls'. At a stroke, this removed the TUC's relevance to her government: no more 'beer and sandwiches' at No.10. More important than any laws, the government's monetarist economic and social policies during the world recession of 1981-2 accelerated the destruction of much of traditional 'smokestack' manufacturing industry, which employed the big battalions of the trade-union movement. Levels of unemployment not seen since the 1930s, (over two million rising to four by the mid '80s), decimated all unions at the workplace. By simultaneously adopting a 'step by step' piecemeal approach instead of the 'big bang' tried in 1971, Mrs Thatcher was able to hamstring the steadily weakening unions by use of the law.

The first Employment Act of 1980, included only limited reforms to picketing law and the operation of 'closed shops',. Its provision of state funds for postal ballots even appealed to some right-led unions such as the engineers and the electricians, who already balloted their members regularly. It also divided the TUC, as the left-led unions tried to prevent them availing themselves of these funds.

The much tougher Employment Act 1982 restricted 'closed shops' with impossibly high (85%) ballots, reduced dismissal compensation, and allowed employers to sack all strikers. But the really crucial step was to repeal the protection 'which prevented action being taken by the courts against union funds'. Unions were again exposed to large claims for damages during disputes ('limited' to £250,000 for each offence).

The lack of any effective opposition from either the unions or the Labour Party, both preoccupied with internal left-right factional disputes, meant that the Conservatives' post-Falklands electoral landslide of 1983 gave them the 'green light' to go further than they had ever dared hope. They immediately introduced the Trade Union Act 1984 which, among other things, compelled all unions, on pain of loss of their immunities :

to hold secret ballots of individual members before calling on them to take industrial action
to elect their principal executive committees and voting general secretaries at least every five years and
to validate their political objects and funds at least every ten years.
The union leaders failed to appreciate that the key proposal to give workers a right to vote individually on industrial action was popular, even with their own members: in fact, the provisions of the bill on union elections were modelled on the engineers' rule book. It was this which really exposed the unions' Achilles heel. By counter-posing this direct individual form of democracy to most unions' indirect, delegated forms of democracy, the government had stumbled upon a reform which would transform British industrial relations.

The Scargill-led National Union of Mineworkers fell foul of this by declaring a national strike in March 1984 without balloting the very independent and crucial coal-getting areas, such as Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. As a result it was the 'working miners', often financed by shadowy employer and right-wing organisations, who used the law against the NUM, getting the courts to declare the strike unlawful. When the NUM ignored the judgements, the courts imposed huge fines and ultimately sequestration of all the union's assets, under the Trade Union Act 1984. The disastrous defeat of the previously invincible miners ended all union hope of continuing to defy those laws.

Following this and another disastrous defeat for the London printers at Wapping in 1985, and a further election victory for the Conservatives in 1987, the Employment Act 1988, was mainly about giving rights and resources to dissident individual members. But only a handful of members ever availed themselves of the services of the new Commissioner for the Rights of Union Members, and in a few years that office was wound up. The act also made the balloting requirements far more complex and onerous for unions and more open to legal challenge by employers.

[borders]

That'll be the same one that saw 900 workers at Lindsey sacked today then.

whats your point ??