We need to fight mail centre closures

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21732" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

by Paul Turnbull, CWU area processing rep, Cambridgeshire

Royal Mail is threatening thousands of jobs by unleashing a raft of mail centre closures across Britain.

The scale of the assault is becoming clearer by the week.

Many activists in the CWU union are angry and bewildered by our union’s response.

When management recently announced their intention to close Stevenage mail centre union reps demanded a ballot for strike action.

Some 150 workers face either redundancy or a 40-mile round-trip to another office.

But the national leadership say the agreement to end last year’s dispute means we cannot strike against the closure.

Instead, we are told, we must put an “alternative financial plan”, which must show the “the same level of savings” as closing the mail centre.

In effect, the union is expected to propose slashing its own members’ jobs by suggesting the closure of different mail centre.

How any union can accept this logic is beyond me. Certainly, this aspect of the national agreement that CWU members voted on recently was not explained to anyone.

Union activists must express their anger with the closure programme and the national union’s acceptance of it.

Every member of our postal executive should be inundated with demands for a fight to save our mail centres and jobs.

© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

[baldrick]

Certainly, this aspect of the national agreement that CWU members voted on recently was not explained to anyone.

It was in the National Agreement, and Reps should have read that and explained it to their members,
when they made their recommendation to vote Yes or No.

[ldsposti]

Everyone knew what was going to happen but they all saw the £ signs, my office will not back any mailcentre.

[fishtank]

Everyone knew what was going to happen but they all saw the £ signs, my office will not back any mailcentre.

Wait until you see Closures Part 2......The D.O. mergers....it's coming to an office near you....could be very near.
Will you expect your Mailcentre to back you?

[dvbuk55]

Everyone knew what was going to happen but they all saw the £ signs, my office will not back any mailcentre.

Nor will the CWU apparently. Though in fairness although the NO STRIKE position wasn't widely explained it was a part of the agreement. All this working together and exploring every avenue and there will be no delay to moving forward and so on and so on.

No doubt there will be much more "talking" to be explored before the final closures.

[steven100]

I wouln't support any mail centre which closes, everyone knew what RM were doing, i'd quite happily cross a mail centre pickline now, something i'd fought i'd never say. Its dog eat dog now in RM. Plus soon the end of the cwu, too many are quitting the disallutioned union.

[dvbuk55]

The writing was on the wall for the mail centres before this agreement saw the light of day, some closures had already been discussed and agreed. If in the unlikely event that there is a call for a national strike it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction there would be. BUT are mail centres the only target for cost cutting - personally I would have thought transport would be a prime target.

I too firmly believe that there will be a rationalisation of DOs, despite what some may think, the WSMs are going to be the catalyst for this and of course the added bonus is the freeing up of assets to sell off and bring in revenue.

[fishtank]

The writing was on the wall for the mail centres before this agreement saw the light of day, some closures had already been discussed and agreed. If in the unlikely event that there is a call for a national strike it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction there would be. BUT are mail centres the only target for cost cutting - personally I would have thought transport would be a prime target.

I too firmly believe that there will be a rationalisation of DOs, despite what some may think, the WSMs are going to be the catalyst for this and of course the added bonus is the freeing up of assets to sell off and bring in revenue.

With CDVs we will have a much more mobile workforce so....is there any need for two D.O.s maybe 5-10 miles apart with two lots of overheads and two lots of managers and one of them sitting in a nice prime location.
You don't need to be a genius to join the dots on that one.

[dvbuk55]

The writing was on the wall for the mail centres before this agreement saw the light of day, some closures had already been discussed and agreed. If in the unlikely event that there is a call for a national strike it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction there would be. BUT are mail centres the only target for cost cutting - personally I would have thought transport would be a prime target.

I too firmly believe that there will be a rationalisation of DOs, despite what some may think, the WSMs are going to be the catalyst for this and of course the added bonus is the freeing up of assets to sell off and bring in revenue.

With CDVs we will have a much more mobile workforce so....is there any need for two D.O.s maybe 5-10 miles apart with two lots of overheads and two lots of managers and one of them sitting in a nice prime location.
You don't need to be a genius to join the dots on that one.

Some live in the misguided belief that their world will never change, that the sweet little deals they have at present will go on ad infinitum - then you read of offices with 23 and 15 and even up to 50 and wonder how they have managed to survive until now.

You take into account the CDVs, taking them home, part timers and voila - you barely need an office at all.

[hubbahubba]

The writing was on the wall for the mail centres before this agreement saw the light of day, some closures had already been discussed and agreed. If in the unlikely event that there is a call for a national strike it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction there would be. BUT are mail centres the only target for cost cutting - personally I would have thought transport would be a prime target.

I too firmly believe that there will be a rationalisation of DOs, despite what some may think, the WSMs are going to be the catalyst for this and of course the added bonus is the freeing up of assets to sell off and bring in revenue.

With CDVs we will have a much more mobile workforce so....is there any need for two D.O.s maybe 5-10 miles apart with two lots of overheads and two lots of managers and one of them sitting in a nice prime location.
You don't need to be a genius to join the dots on that one.

Just a guess,but i wouldnt mind betting that once RM have merged/closed as many MC as they can,quite a few of the old buildings will be used as SUPER DO's.My MC has 8 css machines at present,if they shut us down,the DO's for pretty much our ENTIRE postcode area could fit in the old MC.All you would need to add would be the sorting frames from each DO,and there you go!Anyone got any opinions on this?

[dvbuk55]

The writing was on the wall for the mail centres before this agreement saw the light of day, some closures had already been discussed and agreed. If in the unlikely event that there is a call for a national strike it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction there would be. BUT are mail centres the only target for cost cutting - personally I would have thought transport would be a prime target.

I too firmly believe that there will be a rationalisation of DOs, despite what some may think, the WSMs are going to be the catalyst for this and of course the added bonus is the freeing up of assets to sell off and bring in revenue.

With CDVs we will have a much more mobile workforce so....is there any need for two D.O.s maybe 5-10 miles apart with two lots of overheads and two lots of managers and one of them sitting in a nice prime location.
You don't need to be a genius to join the dots on that one.

Just a guess,but i wouldnt mind betting that once RM have merged/closed as many MC as they can,quite a few of the old buildings will be used as SUPER DO's.My MC has 8 css machines at present,if they shut us down,the DO's for pretty much our ENTIRE postcode area could fit in the old MC.All you would need to add would be the sorting frames from each DO,and there you go!Anyone got any opinions on this?

Seems a perfectly viable use of a large building and the selling off of several smaller ones, which would probably be in much better locations for a buyer.

[not me]

Just a guess,but i wouldnt mind betting that once RM have merged/closed as many MC as they can,quite a few of the old buildings will be used as SUPER DO's.My MC has 8 css machines at present,if they shut us down,the DO's for pretty much our ENTIRE postcode area could fit in the old MC.All you would need to add would be the sorting frames from each DO,and there you go!Anyone got any opinions on this?

well in Edinburgh the large central DO has been sold
so the postcodes contained within have been split out and merged with surrounding DO's
at least one DO has has been displaced and put into another building (old xmas overflow space) on the edge of the city
so now there are DO's in the city that arent based in the postcodes the deliver to
you have the crazy situation where folks live next door to their old DO but have to travel miles to their 'new' DO
while the 'old' DO is still a DO
so if for example they shut the Edinburgh MC it would be a small step to pull in those DOs to a 'super DO'

[andy2007]

I wouln't support any mail centre which closes, everyone knew what RM were doing, i'd quite happily cross a mail centre pickline now, something i'd fought i'd never say. Its dog eat dog now in RM. Plus soon the end of the cwu, too many are quitting the disallutioned union.

Oh, the short sighted views of the ill-informed! Does the phrase: Divide and conquor, ring any bells?
Or perhaps: United we stand, divided we fall?

Hasn't the Union been weakened enough. Without short sighted individuals like you, playing right into RM's hands?

Have any MC staff ever crossed your Picket Lines?
Don't they go on National Strikes, even if they've little to loose by staying in?
What exactly do you have against our Brothers and Sisteers in the MCs?