Big call for the Postal Executive

[hans solo]

dingo on posting again strange that when cwu have to address major policy or decision haven,t heard much from him since before xmas.
what are the executive going to do easy whats in their own best interestslook after no 1 thats what they did last time.
no parts of agreement which suit or benefit members have been adhered to
why to force executive back to table to undermine us again with self interest only motive
i will / would vote to take ia every time because unlike the agreement is meant to do us and them still exists even worse than before bullying is rife which is what brought us to take action before and it IS going to get even worse

[BT2010]

is this the ed davey you speak of dingo?

http://www.cwukentinvicta.org/52.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Letter to Branches

No. 642/2010 Ref: 21003

Date: 26th July 2010

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

MINISTER WARNS POSTAL UNIONS AGAINST STRIKE


Please find attached to this LTB a copy of an article that appeared in the Guardian on the 21st July with the above mentioned headline.

In response to this article I have today written to Ed Davey, Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs. A copy of this letter is attached.

I would ask Branches to ensure that CWU members are aware of these developments.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

Deputy General Secretary (P)

Royal Mail workers warned against strike

• No bailout for pension fund without sell-off to private sector
• Opposing privatisation would be 'self-defeating' says minister

The minister in charge of privatising Royal Mail has warned unions opposed to the plan that taking further industrial action would be "self-defeating".
Ed Davey also said there would be no government bailout of Royal Mail's estimated £10bn pension fund deficit without selling off the company. "We are having to take incredibly tough decisions across the public sector," he told the Guardian. "I do not think people will believe that Royal Mail should be protected."
The Guardian has also learnt that the Treasury could force Royal Mail's new owners to hand back the £900m the government lent the company to modernise much earlier than expected. Royal Mail's annual report in May said it expected to renegotiate another debt facility when the current five year funding arrangement expires in 2014. But it is now understood the money will have to be repaid in 2014, because the government will expect any new private owners to fund modernisation themselves.
The Communication Workers' Union remains staunchly opposed to the sell-off plan and is co-ordinating a national campaign against it. It believes bringing in new private sector management and owners is likely to scupper the modernisation agreement struck between the union and Royal Mail after last year's bitter industrial dispute and to lead to renewed hostilities.
Speaking to the Guardian, Davey, Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton, said new owners would have to "deal with employees fairly". He stressed that he hoped he would be able to win round the CWU, which successfully campaigned against the previous government's privatisation plan last year.
"I start off with a positive agenda to make sure there are no strikes which I hope the unions and members will respond positively to. I am hoping that because they understand that Royal Mail has financial challenges and are rather concerned about members' pensions they will recognise that what we are proposing is both sensible and frankly essential."
Under the plan employees will be offered shares in the business on a partnership model similar to John Lewis, giving them a share of profits. Last month Davey met Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU, and his deputy Dave Ward. Further meetings are planned.
"Many realise within Royal Mail that the last strike damaged the company," Davey said. "Any strikes now in the mail sector seem pretty self-defeating."
A CWU spokesman said the union remained opposed to the plan. He said the union was in a stronger position to defeat the latest privatisation attempt than last year because it had agreed to work with Royal Mail management to modernise by bringing in new automated sorting machines and working practices.
"The company is not crying out for money," the CWU spokesman said. "It has the appropriate modernisation programme in place. Royal Mail has stability now for the first time for a long time. Our position is to oppose privatisation."
A new postal bill is to go before Parliament in the autumn and could secure royal assent by next June, Davey said. The auction will not begin until legislation has been agreed. He said the bill would be more radical than the previous government's, and hinted that the entire government stake could be sold, as opposed to a minority stake.





Our Ref : DW/jdd/67000

23rd July 2010


Ed Davey, MP
Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET

Dear Ed


MINISTER WARNS POSTAL UNION’S AGAINST STRIKE

I was very disappointed to read your comments in the Guardian article of 21st July.

Far from threatening strike action, the CWU has entered into a three year modernisation agreement with Royal Mail which will bring products and services to the cutting edge of delivery systems while providing a period of stability for the company and its staff.

Your comments are either ill-informed or deliberately timed to destabilise the workforce and use this as a smokescreen for the government to pursue its unpopular ideological privatisation objective.
Our Ref : DW/jdd/67000

Talk of a Government bail out on pensions is also totally misleading. A proper examination of the facts will show pensions can be resolved without privatisation.

We are very worried that the Government intends to raid the £24 billion worth of assets in the Royal Mail pension scheme under the pretence of ‘bailing it out’. CWU is not looking for a dispute - but if our members’ pension fund is robbed of its assets then we will respond in a decisive manner.


In response to your article I am publishing this letter to CWU Branches and members.

I look forward to seeing you on the 3rd August, when I hope you will be able to clarify the Government’s position on CWU members’ pension entitlements.

Yours sincerely



Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)

[Swinder]

Ballot for IA and make sure all CWU members receive proper information in regards to proposed agreements so that they can make an educated decision when it is time to decide whether or not they accept the proposed agreement.

If the proposed agreement is a load of crap then we vote against it and send the union and RM representatives back in to improve on it rather than blindly accepting the first deal that has a bit of money attached in some form or another.

[fishtank]

No lump sums attached to any agreement on terms and conditions.
How likely is that.

[pickaname]

How the CWU has the audacity to come back to its members with renewed calls for IA is beyond me.

It really is a shocking state of affairs that a trade union can repeatedly bungle deal after deal after deal and still expect the membership to trust them to get another deal.

Question is, if we go out on strike what then?

Another deal?

How long before the CWU have to call us out again.

If the union held out in 2010 instead of bricking it then we wouldnt be here today.

Its BS - it really is.

[Glenno]

Next Wednesdays the Postal Executive will meet to discuss its next steps. Royal Mail have not met the demands which the Union made on colleague share , the BTA agreement and the fact that they have just rejected the Union"s alternative propostion for London and have said they will push ahead with their plan which will result in complusory redundancies in Royal Mail for the first time. By the ways it is not only the union saying this but an independent consultants report has also included this.

So what decision would you like to see the Postal Executive make ? Sensible answers only please. Remember most on here have a view and have criticised various aspects of the agreement , so what decisons would you want the Postal Executive to make ?

Until I have seen and read this new plan I will reserve judgement

[bexhil palace]

The only way that i can see the CWU getting a mandate for I.A, is if the proposed raid on the pension assets are tied in
with all other grievences. talking to members on the floor,the pension is the one area that is worrying everyone across the board.
To me,the pension should never have been seperated from the 2010 agreement.

[dvbuk55]

The only way that i can see the CWU getting a mandate for I.A, is if the proposed raid on the pension assets are tied in
with all other grievences. talking to members on the floor,the pension is the one area that is worrying everyone across the board.
To me,the pension should never have been seperated from the 2010 agreement.

Well I may stand corrected but I think it was seperated on the previous agreement............there was the promise of a vote, it never happened

[barbario]

Pickaname,excepting defeat is not an option.We would get absolutely hammered otherwise.

[barbario]

Sorry,accepting.

[fishtank]

Pickaname,excepting defeat is not an option.We would get absolutely hammered otherwise.

He does ask a good question though and one that the members will need an answer to.
If we do go back out...what then...another deal?
With an employer we can't trust?
Any ideas barbario?

[The FraudSquad]

Lincox we have not got six months , its one of those issues which if you blink now then Royal Mail and indeed the Government will think the union cannot get the support of the membership. At a recent meeting at the EXEL which was attended by every senior Royal Mail manager in the UK , Higson , Greene and Duncan the three now most senior managers in Royal Mail asked all the managers whether their staff would support a strike only a handful said yes.

Why did they ask that ? .

Why did they ask them? They are not going to be able to give an accurate account of the mood on the ground being so detached up in the ivory tower

[hans solo]

they obviously were too scared to tell the truth
they cant function without lying so no use asking their own billy liars a question

[Danelectro]

In deliveries the question on my mind is if revision processes are to be looked at, there is only one way that can go and that is reducing the amount of work that is expected to be done on a daily basis eg IWT run at 80 instead of 100 or reduced walking speeds or more time given for attendance calls or go back to working duties out without computer programs

This leads to more hours in each office and less expected savings for Royal Mail which surely means trying to get any increase in basic pay or any other monies more difficult and nigh near impossible to justify to Royal Mail and the Government in the current political climate.

So is it likely we can get hours back and an increase in pay/CS pay out/any other monies?
If not what demand must go or compromise be made if any?

Also length of deliveries,is there a need for a national agreed span again and if so what is to be done with any shortfall in indoor work etc.

[teesdale]

Keep to BTA, except long hold put on World Class Mail (everyone knows its shite except Higson who's fallen for the Professor) were still in but just postponing. An argument that although CWU had a say in mail centre closures every one Royal Mail wanted closed is to close. Vote for industrial action on compulsory redundancy/redundancy terms being increased, possibly joining forces with CMA on this. Drawn out strikes by function-day each (Deliveries, Mail Centre; earlies, lates, nights, RDC's/Network, Weekends/Airport/Heathrow) dragging on and on but only one days strike per person per fortnight also with pauses. Also use of action alternative to striking, but in addition to, agreed formally by CWU and notified to Royal Mail, if any alternatives exsist.