Members of the Communication Workers Union representing 160,000 employees in Royal Mail Group have this morning voted unanimously in favour of the threat of a mail boycott if postal regulator Ofcom fails to protect the UK's mail service.
The meaning of the word 'unanimous' as reps vote for the boycott.
Hundreds of reps voted to agree a policy to boycott private mail companies' post which is sent to Royal Mail for the 'final mile' delivery. This represents almost half of all letters (44%) delivered in the UK.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "This vote demonstrates the rising concerns among CWU members regarding changes to the postal service affecting jobs, services and performance standards."
CWU general secretary, Billy Hayes, added: "This union is no stranger to boycotts. In the past our members have boycotted mail during the Grunwick dispute and in 1971 in relation to mail and telephone services to South Africa.
"This is about defending the postal sector. Liberalisation of postal services in this country is a mess and we'll fight for the future of this sector," said Billy.
Explaining in more detail, Dave continued: "Competition in the postal sector is not benefitting the public - prices are going up and the regulator is actively consulting on reducing services from six days a week to five or perhaps even less. Small businesses which are such an important part of the economy rely on the universal service. Only big businesses with bulk mail contracts benefit from competition, yet we rarely see any evidence of them passing those price benefits onto their customers rather than just improving their own profits.
"Competition is being allowed on the basis of low-pay and unreliable job security in private companies. That will be a disaster for the sector if it continues. We will take this action to protect jobs and services if the regulator doesn't fulfil its duty."
The motion states:
"The CWU calls upon the Regulator to immediately act in line with its statutory duty and intervene to protect the Universal Service."
The motion singles out the issue of "cherry picking the profitable parts of the delivery network" and calls for private firms to meet "the same quality of service and performance standards as Royal Mail."
The motion also warns of a "race to the bottom on the pay and conditions of postal workers" and calls for minimum industry standards for postal workers, underpinned by the Living Wage as a minimum for pay.
Further details on the boycott of private-companies' mail will be published in time for the CWU's annual conference in April. If measures are not taken by postal regulator Ofcom, postal workers could refuse to handle third-party mail - which makes up almost half of all letters delivered by Royal Mail - in the next few months.
The CWU's official Boycott Statement in full:
As the Nation's only Universal Service provider, Royal Mail has an historic obligation to deliver mail, packets and parcels 6 days a week to every address in the UK and to do so for the same price whatever the location. This Universal Service Obligation was strengthened in the Postal Services Act 2011.
However, the Universal Service is now under major threat directly from unfair competition and the actions of Ofcom, who refuse to intervene in the growth of End to End competition. Instead, Ofcom are proactively consulting on cutting delivery days from 6 to 5 (or less), scrapping first class mail and reducing quality of service standards. These are the actions of a Regulator who is being allowed by Government to abandon its primary legislative role of protecting the Universal Service, in favour of the marketisation and privatisation of UK postal services.
As a result of Ofcom's pro competition position, competitors such as TNT can choose where, when and what they deliver, without any laid down quality of service or performance standards and by under cutting the jobs, pay and conditions of postal workers across the UK.
In response to these actions the CWU is determined to defend the Universal Postal Service through the re-launched "Save our Royal Mail" campaign and where necessary through direct action.
The CWU has announced that unless there is a significant change in regulatory and Government policy, the Union will call upon its membership to boycott the competitors' mail in defence of the Universal Postal Service.
The CWU calls upon the Regulator to immediately act in line with its statutory duty and intervene to protect the Universal Service through the following:
To stop the cherry picking of the profitable parts of the delivery network and ensure that any competitors operate in line with the same quality of service and performance standards as Royal Mail.
To undertake an independent assessment of Royal Mails current efficiency levels, to ensure that targets set by the Regulator are realistic, achievable and not influenced by the pay and conditions of existing Royal Mail workers, as compared to other workers in the sector.
The CWU also calls upon the Government to ensure that competition in the postal sector is not driven by the race to the bottom on the pay and conditions of postal workers. The Government should address this issue by introducing minimum industry standards for postal workers, including making competitors pay the living wage as a minimum.
CWU Representatives endorse the existing policy on the boycott of competitor's mail and a further report will be published in April, detailing the terms of how and when the boycott will be undertaken, if progress has not been made in line with the objectives set out in this statement.
Prior to its Annual Conference the CWU will also publish a timetable to ballot its membership and galvanise support for the boycott policy.
A statement issued on behalf of the CWU postal executive.