Billy Hayes - ARTICLE FOR TRIBUNE

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The CWU is committed to a future for Royal Mail as an efficient, modern public service. We want the industry to utilise all the benefits of new technology, and thus provide an innovative range of services for both business and domestic customers.

So it is with much reluctance that the Union comes to a position where 76% of CWU members in Royal Mail vote for strike action. But it is our view that a labour intensive industry cannot be modernised unless the work force is treated with respect.

Postal workers know that the modernisation of the industry does not include reducing services, tearing up collective agreements, bullying and cutting earnings. That is why our members and negotiators are demanding a new national agreement to carry through the modernisation of Royal Mail.

Management need to accept that its own rhetoric, about the work force being Royal Mail’s “most valuable asset”, is actually true. Only by new engagement with the work force and its Union can the dispute be resolved.

Of course, the Government, as the “employer of the employer” has a role to play. The industry can be transformed by the Government taking on its responsibility for the deficit in the pensions scheme. This would immediately provide Royal Mail with £280 million additional capital per year.

At this year’s Labour Party Conference, an Emergency Motion was carried which directed the Government to do exactly that. This significant policy was ignored by the media. Yet were the Government to act on party policy, an extended dispute may be averted.

The response of the press has been extraordinary, and reminds one how strong the anti-union bias is in reporting. For example numerous articles were written implying that there would be no impact from a postal strike. It was further suggested that the Union was fighting a supposedly hopeless case, much like the miners strike. Let us leave aside the snobbery and obvious injustice to the mining community that a such a comparison involves.

Mark Lawson wrote a piece along this line for the Guardian on Friday, 9 October. Why the editor assumed that this journalist had some sort of insight into the industry in unclear. Equally unclear is why the Union has not, to date, been allowed the right of reply.

Subsequently press releases were issued by a number of business organisations, representing all sizes of firms, which explained just how serious the impact of a national postal strike would be upon these businesses. Now the tag line was how the stance of postal workers, and their union, was terribly irresponsible. The comparison website Kelkool suggested that the impact of a strike could run to reducing the economy by £1.5b. Such analysis is mostly speculation, but confirms that the postal industry remains important for the whole economy.

The postal industry has suffered from decades of under investment, failed privatisation attempts, and a botched regulatory regime. Despite this, Royal Mail has faired better in the recession than its privatised rivals Deutsche Post and TNT. Not only does it offer a service for domestic customers at around half the price of these rivals, but it also has reached record levels of quality of service.

Of course, a national strike will not help the industry. Postal workers do not have a parachute out of the industry. They have to ensure that the working conditions and wages are tolerable. Postal workers, and their union, understand the industry better than their critics.

In recognition of the need to carry through a genuine transformation of the industry, the CWU is seeking an agreement to cover a three year period. This would allow for the introduction of the new machinery and methods of working which are necessary to overcome the years of under-investment in the industry. Such a transformation would include new products and services to customers, as well as improved terms and conditions for postal workers.

The age of the internet and information technology has not rendered the postal industry redundant. On the contrary, it has buoyed up Royal Mail and created the basis for a new platform of services. Whatever the challenges, it is only the work force that can ultimately meet them.

That is why the CWU regards the dispute as a fight for the future of Royal Mail, as much as a fight for the rights of postal workers. Management must take the opportunity it has to successfully, and progressively, resolve these issues.

Posted by Billy Hayes | @ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:21:58 +0100

[prowler]

I'm also fed up with a right wing press and a lot of clueless journalists talking a lot of b******t about a dispute they know f*** all about.

[IWW Fellow Worker]

I'm also fed up with a right wing press and a lot of clueless journalists talking a lot of b******t about a dispute they know f*** all about.

There's a few screws and screws arse lickers on here who fall into that category.