POL IR Framework disgraces CWU

[MinisterofCucumber]

The CWU representatives who agreed the POL IR Framework are guilty of bringing the Union into disrepute.

Local Unit reps have been disenfranchised because they no longer have the right to register formal disagreements. Local reps who want to register disagreements have to beg their Area rep to put one in. The Area rep is not obliged to register a disagreement and often doesn't.

If the Area rep doesn't do what the members in a Unit want him/her to do and changes are pushed through, it makes the CWU look very bad. The CWU's reputation has been damaged because members believe that management have manipulated the Union into taking the blame for worsening the terms and conditions of CWU members. It doesn't help that this new IR Framework was brought in by a branch vote of only 48 ballot papers. Do the members believe this is an acceptable version of democracy?

From the POL IR Framework:

"Resolving Local Disagreement

Initial Discussions
Action: Informal talks held between Branch/Cash Centre/Unit Manager and AR with proposals from all parties given serious consideration.

Aim: To reach agreement that best serves the interests of the business and its employees.

Timetable: Discussions to be undertaken without undue delay.

Outputs: Notes of issues discussed and agreement reached.

Record of Disagreement
Action: Branch/Cash Centre/Unit Manager and AR formally record their reasons for disagreement.

Aim: To clarify the issues involved

Formal Stage 1

Action: Branch/Cash Centre/Unit Manager and AR meet to discuss the issues.

Aim: To reach agreement that best serves the interests of the business and its employees.

Timetable: Meeting to be held within 5 days of the record of disagreement being completed.

Outputs: Notes of issues discussed and agreement reached."

[Martin Walsh]

Royal Mail`s Industrial Relations framework has been in place since 1992 and has been supported time and time again by members and conference.

Yet the first stage of the framework the local rep still does not registar disagreement , he has to call the area rep in to raise it to the second stage. Of course if you cannot agree at the second stage of the framework on Royal Mail`s then the area rep registars disagreement and it goes to the Divisonal Rep.

Now it would seem Minster Cucumber that you have an issue with the area rep for whatever reason. That does the framework wrong as the framework is designed to be used for offices which have problems not indivduals who have problems with each other.

Now the IR framework works well and as has led to many issues coming up and being resolved. Equally many issues which have led to disputes and of course some which have led to executive action.

Now in terms of Branch ballots I do believe that if you decide to ask members to vote for an indsustrial relations framework that many would not vote at all. Whereas what your meant to do on a Branch ballot is to hold meetings of the members in the work place and then aggregate the result and then the Branch to decide on that basis.

Now I do believe that there maybe members who think the CWU have been manipulated by managers and there maybe members who believe the earth is still square and nothings change since the old days in Royal Mail so therefore the union should ingnore what management or doing. However I believe that the majority of members understand that change has to happen and that whilst no one likes change the reality is that it is only the union that has stopped far worse condtions happening in Royal Mail and the wider post office.

[MinisterofCucumber]

Dingo,

Going by other posts on this site, I am not the only rep who has difficulty getting their Area rep to register disagreements and if an AR doesn't want to register disagreement, nobody can force him/her to do it. In theory, a local rep could complain that the Area rep's inactivity is bringing the Union into disrepute but we all know that nothing will happen.

The branch structure only works if the Branch is being run in an open and democratic way. Despite a lot of talk, the CWU has done nothing to call rogue branches to account. There are a lot of CWU officials whose loyalty to the CWU is beyond question but their loyalty to the principles and spirit of trade unionism is in question.

I accept that agreements are based on reality. I only want to register disagreement when agreements and policies are broken, as is the common practise in my unit.

What I am asking for is reasonable. A local rep is the only rep that is solely democratically accountable to the members in a unit yet a local rep does not have the power to register a disagreement. An Area rep can afford to piss off a unit because any one unit is only a fraction of his/her electorate. If the Area rep can put the blame on the local rep, even better for him/her because the members will exhaust their anger on the local rep and vote a new one in who the Area rep can shaft all over again.

There is a sound democratic argument for renegotiating the IR Framework to empower local reps to register formal disagreements.

[Martin Walsh]

The problem with your arguement is that even if you registar a disagreement as a local rep that disagreement will go to the area rep and the area manager so what makes that any better. I disagree with you in so much as I know currently of two Branch`s who are being investigated for problems and I have know one Branch forcely merged by CWU HQs when they were not doing the job.

Yes some reps might have a problem with the area rep but I do think the majority recognise that the area rep is their to support them. Now in your case you do seem to have a problem with yours and I would recommend you try and resolve that with either the help of your Branch or with the help of your HQs.

Simply by having the right for an local rep to have the right to registar disagreement in my opinion does nothing. I have yet to meet an area rep who has not when requested by a local rep that there is a disagreement in the local office either hold the stage 2 disagreement in line with the framework or try and resolve it before it gets to that point. Of course there are issues which are not for the disagreements and that is interperations of national agreements and these are points of prinicples which should be refered by your TCR or Divisonal Rep in Royal Mail`s case to CWU HQs for resolution.

In my mind you would be better writing to indivduals who you or your office have an issue with and talking rather than posting on here for a bit of showboating.

[MinisterofCucumber]

I had to look up 'showboating' and it's a good insult

My intention is to get justice for my unit and other units that have been shafted. I have written to others in the CWU and their high handed and offensive replies entertained a lot of people on this site until someone put pressure on Postman to remove them. I have been forced to expose my experiences because there are rogue elements in our Union that are not being held to account.

I am glad to hear that two branches are being investigated. If it is my Branch, please send the investigators my way and I will provide them with some interesting evidence.