Post bulletin 15: 12 November 2009
Many postal workers and CWU activists have been angered by last week's decision by Dave Ward, Billy Hayes and the Postal Executive (PEC) to drop the strikes for an Interim Agreement. This dictates a “period of calm free of industrial action” up to Christmas, with agreed change to start in January 2010.
Many, especially in London where postal workers have sacrificed thousands, are bitter at this sell-out, with good reason. This phase of the national strike was supposed to be our trump card, with maximum pressure on Royal Mail and the Labour government to make serious concessions.
The strikes have already cost London businesses £500 million and would have cost £1.5 billion nationally if they went up to Christmas. However the CWU leaders have thrown this advantage away, without any real concessions but just an agreement for more talks (see over).
The agreement says that the union and company need to rebuild trust by “aligning the interests of customers, employees and the company as a whole for modernisation”. But our interests are incompatible. Adam Crozier's management team, with the Labour government behind it, want modernisation as a means to bust the CWU, slash jobs and conditions and privatise Royal Mail.
We remain at war. So what use is a truce? For Crozier and Peter Mandelson, it is very useful because it allows them to deliver the backlog and get Christmas out the way, possibly develop their scabbing operation. For us, it breaks the rhythm of the strikes and ties our hands in pointless “negotiations” with the same managers, who have been shafting us for six months or more.
What can we do?
1. Postal workers should demand the union immediately reinstate the action unless and until the members vote to call it off. It was the decision of 120,000 postal CWU members to call the action. Only they, the striking members, can rightfully decide whether to call it off!
2. Reps at every level of the union should use the agreement's terms to demand the complete reversal of all executive action, the reinstatement of and dropping of disciplinary charges against sacked workers. If management refuses to make serious concessions, then mass meetings should demand the union uses the procedure in the agreement (para. 1.6) to restart the strike - and, wherever possible, not wait but walk out in protest to force the issue.
3. Activists, reps and branches should link up at rank and file level to coordinate their response - for example, by petitioning the PEC or spreading unofficial strikes. Branches should vote to demand the strike action continues and an immediate recall conference is convened - with or without Billy Hayes, Dave Ward and the Postal Executive Committee - to discuss how to win this dispute. The fighting wing of the union should not wait but call an emergency meeting to coordinate this campaign and discuss how to win the strike
• Guarantee no job losses to bring in the new machines, but a 35 hour week with no loss of pay
• Unwind all the executive action taken since April
• Drop the charges against all members disciplined and reinstate all those sacked during the strike
• Force the government to underwrite the pension fund.
• Restart the strikes - officially or unofficially
Let Royal Mail - and the CWU leadership - know: we don't need a “period of calm” to chew over vague forms of words, but a storm of strikes, until Royal Mail concedes to our demands for a quality service delivered by a decently paid and treated workforce.
Victory to the post workers!