The European Parliament voted through by 512 votes to 156 to delay total mail deregulation (liberalisation) by three years (originally planned to be 2009) to 2011-2013.
Postal unions are seeking protection for the universal postal service and postal workers job. They were demonstrating ouside the meeting today at Strasbourg.
Many European countries are expressing concerns over the future of the USO which is still to be debated.
The UK, which is still one of the countries ahead of schedule for deregulation could face similar problems to Germany who recently complained that the lack of progress in some countries meant Germany was unable to compete fairly against existing monopolies yet other countries were (theoretically) able to compete with them.
With a delay in the full deregulation agenda in Europe, this could put even more pressure on Royal Mail (which is in the midst of a postal dispute) to compete with other postal operators in other European countries which still have monopoly mail providers.
Aside from the obvious reasons for this Friday's strike being backed by as many as last time, my view is this:
If managers all got their bonuses for hitting targets, then surely the profits for the year ending April 2007 must have been pretty decent ? And if so, it would explain why RM have delayed publishing the results. If the profit figures are healthy, it blows their claim that the business cannot afford more than a 2.5% increase right out of the water. Someone I have spoken to reckons they are legally obliged to declare the profits within three calendar months of the financial year end, so let's keep the pressure and the strikes going until those figures are published.
Dave Ward, Billy Hayes and anyone else in the union hierarchy, if you're reading this, I hope you lot are ready with a media offensive to expose RM's lies if my theory is right. Show up the hypocrisy of Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier who bung the managers big bonuses yet deny those of us that do the donkey work a decent pay rise
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy (1925 - 1968), South Africa, 1966
I can't say I'm in total agreement with the CWU and its leaders all of the time and perhaps we can have a debate about it when this present dispute is over, but for now I'm 100% with the CWU. The enemy is the system of capitalism of which Leighton and Crozier are its agents aided and abetted by DUMs, screws, strike breakers and politicians who haven't got the moral courage to speak out against something so obviously wrong and detrimental to the interests of the majority.
The Industrial Workers of the World. The union whose members never scab!
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common."
if u think this strike can do anything about capitalism - whether you are right or wrong on this dont matter - then u must be off your rocker wewould have been lucky to have got a better pay offer and thats if the dispute had been run sensible fronm the start
The bedrock on which capitalism is built is the workers (after greed and self interest).
They can buy in as many machines as they like but with no one to operate them there ain't no money comin in. All profit is the result of what a companies employees do. A garage with no mechanics won't stay in business for long.
postmangnu wrote:if u think this strike can do anything about capitalism - whether you are right or wrong on this dont matter - then u must be off your rocker wewould have been lucky to have got a better pay offer and thats if the dispute had been run sensible fronm the start
Sorry mate. I only speak Englsh so I couldn't possibly answer whatever it is you are trying to say.
The Industrial Workers of the World. The union whose members never scab!
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
I may not fully agree with your position but I at least researched the IWW before I passed comment. Ignorance is NOT bliss.
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I asked an area manager a question the other day. It went, 'Why, if the EU has suspended liberalisation of the postal industry until 2011, are Royal Mail not going to the Government and asking them to, 1: Suspend the regulator, 2: Tear up any access agreements arranged through the regulator until 2011 so we can move the business forward, through modernisation, with less jobs going than RM plan.
His Answer was. I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT.
IN OTHER WORDS WHY WOULD RM WANT TO DO THAT WHEN THEY CAN FLUSH 40000 JOBS OUT IN 1 GO.
MAKES MY F**KING BLOOD BOIL :lfo :cfo
cruisey wrote:I asked an area manager a question the other day. It went, 'Why, if the EU has suspended liberalisation of the postal industry until 2011, are Royal Mail not going to the Government and asking them to, 1: Suspend the regulator, 2: Tear up any access agreements arranged through the regulator until 2011 so we can move the business forward, through modernisation, with less jobs going than RM plan.
His Answer was. I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT.
IN OTHER WORDS WHY WOULD RM WANT TO DO THAT WHEN THEY CAN FLUSH 40000 JOBS OUT IN 1 GO.
MAKES MY F**KING BLOOD BOIL :lfo :cfo
