PEC today agree timetable for a national strike ballot.

[Martin Walsh]

The PEC today agreed a provisional timetable for a national strike action ballot. This will be formally announced at the national briefing on the 2nd September at central hall.

All members will now have the opportunity to either vote yes and fight for your future terms , pensions , pay and ways of working. Or vote no and accept what the government and Royal Mail and any shareholders want to do to you.

Its up to you !

[DirtyHarry]

Fark me, Dingo......Another deal like the last one, the so-called 'deal of the century', will finish a good few of us off.

Will the CWU give it's members a guarantee, that if they choose to go on strike, then the CWU leadership will not betray them again, and members will, for once, walk back into a job with better terms and conditions, than the shower of shyte they walked out on?

I cannot remember the last time I walked back in from a strike, and felt I'd won something.
The last three strikes have been disastrous for postal workers, even now, friends outside this rotten job are puzzled as to why we would bother following Billy and Dave, considering the sacrifice we made last time, and sweet fark-all we got for it.

[k979aaa]

The PEC today agreed a provisional timetable for a national strike action ballot. This will be formally announced at the national briefing on the 2nd September at central hall.

All members will now have the opportunity to either vote yes and fight for your future terms , pensions , pay and ways of working. Or vote no and accept what the government and Royal Mail and any shareholders want to do to you.

Its up to you !

Two months to late we will be delivering the prospectuses before the result comes back. WCM is being pushed through by royalmail in bit's and pieces here and there. It is time some of these top union fellows hit the ground and visited these offices up and down the country and seen the bitterness and discontent in most offices in the land. Time will tell as they say and the clock is ticking fast will we all be paying Partime Subscriptions to the CWU next year after the big sell off!.

[wandle]

Two months to late we will be delivering the prospectuses before the result comes back. WCM is being pushed through by royalmail in bit's and pieces here and there. It is time some of these top union fellows hit the ground and visited these offices up and down the country and seen the bitterness and discontent in most offices in the land. Time will tell as they say and the clock is ticking fast will we all be paying Partime Subscriptions to the CWU next year after the big sell off!.

So even if ballot papers were sent out on, say, 3rd September, we're looking at.... what, three weeks to the close of the ballot. Plus a day or so to inform RM of the result, plus legal minimum notice requirement to set a strike date... I fear the words horse, bolted and stable door are appropriate in this farce!

[Danelectro]

The PEC today agreed a provisional timetable for a national strike action ballot. This will be formally announced at the national briefing on the 2nd September at central hall.

All members will now have the opportunity to either vote yes and fight for your future terms , pensions , pay and ways of working. Or vote no and accept what the government and Royal Mail and any shareholders want to do to you.

Its up to you !

Its also up to those at the top table to heal a few wounds and keep up the flow of information back and forth to the shop floor.As Dirty Harry suggested there also needs to be some guarantees that the CWU will not give way to ever increasing efficiency targets that result in unmanageable workloads forcing members out of the job.

If they want strong support for IA and a membership up for a fight I really dont think we can afford these lull in comms because despite the huge importance of this IA I fear an increase in the amount of people willing to break a strike in my office and there needs to be an urgent increase in activity by HQ and the branch to win over doubters and sceptics.

[demon]

get this wcm has told our managers they cannot talk to us at all as it will slow us down

[fishtank]

The PEC today agreed a provisional timetable for a national strike action ballot. This will be formally announced at the national briefing on the 2nd September at central hall.

Thanks for the info.
Not your decision I know but you have to ask why wait until a week on monday?
Word will get out before then anyway so it won't be a big secret and the next 10 days could be put to far better use than sitting pretending we can't talk about it.
Why are we still holding back?,If it's in the expectation of a last minute cave in from Royal Mail some people at HQ need to get their head out of their arse.
This won't be won by threats alone.

[Lincox]

This is only a provisional time table sanctioned by the PEC. The longer these indecisions continue, the momentum of public support shown at recent road shows will decline. Strike while the iron is hot, has always been a reasonable position to take, but it appears unfortunately that the leadership prefer to dilly and dally and hope that Moya Greene will be the lady for turning. To the PEC. THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Call an emergency meeting immediately and get the show on the road, pull out all the stops and appoint a campaign manager and team that will bring all of the strategies and forces together to provide the members with a fighting chance of beating this monster, who has no care for Royal Mail or it,s employees, or even more the people who use this once wonderful service that is being taken apart piece by piece in the name of modernisation.

[Glenno]

This is only a provisional time table sanctioned by the PEC. The longer these indecisions continue, the momentum of public support shown at recent road shows will decline. Strike while the iron is hot, has always been a reasonable position to take, but it appears unfortunately that the leadership prefer to dilly and dally and hope that Moya Greene will be the lady for turning. To the PEC. THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Call an emergency meeting immediately and get the show on the road, pull out all the stops and appoint a campaign manager and team that will bring all of the strategies and forces together to provide the members with a fighting chance of beating this monster, who has no care for Royal Mail or it,s employees, or even more the people who use this once wonderful service that is being taken apart piece by piece in the name of modernisation.

Totally agree Lincox, the upper end of this Union needs to be more engaged with the shop floor, the rising opposition to Privatisation needs to be cascaded across the movement, Pensions consultation runs out Sun, at best we get e-mail to send postcard in, opposing WCM, what does that actually mean to the lay member, comms are sh++t and they always have been, relying on Local Reps to dig Nationals out of the MIRE has been prevalant for too long, reverse the triangle and work from the bottom up, for me personally there are too many with too much to lose in this good Union of ours, sink or swim, very telling time for the top end

[LinChong]

IA should be about one issue only, pensions and should involve everyone affected.

Any negotiations should just be about pensions. Keep the scope narrow and do not allow them to widen out the talks. Wherever the negotiations take place, our negotiators must be based in a different location that is secured for CWU only.

The message must be got across to the public that the reason they are trying to cut pensions now is because the EU would not let the government take on the full pension liability. The public must be made aware that Royal Mail and the Post Office were deliberately run into the ground so that the government could apply for state aid to take over the pension liability and make Royal Mail attractive to private investors. Things did not go to plan because the EU did not let the government take over the full pension liability and that is why they are trying to cut the pension now.

[k979aaa]

IA should be about one issue only, pensions and should involve everyone affected.

Any negotiations should just be about pensions. Keep the scope narrow and do not allow them to widen out the talks. Wherever the negotiations take place, our negotiators must be based in a different location that is secured for CWU only.

The message must be got across to the public that the reason they are trying to cut pensions now is because the EU would not let the government take on the full pension liability. The public must be made aware that Royal Mail and the Post Office were deliberately run into the ground so that the government could apply for state aid to take over the pension liability and make Royal Mail attractive to private investors. Things did not go to plan because the EU did not let the government take over the full pension liability and that is why they are trying to cut the pension now.

Wrong more to this than pensions even though it is an important one for you and us all pay/workload/direction of the company/privatisation/and more need addressing one cannot go without the other.

[Martin Walsh]

Fish the September 2nd meeting concides with the House of Commons debate on Royal Mail sell off and announcement of a ballot at a union meeting 150 metres from the House Of Commons will capture a lot of media attention.

It's is not too late according to a leaker Royal Mail document the prespectous will not be due out till mid to late September at the earliest!

This dispute is about so much more then pensions , outsourcing , franchising , two tier workforce , acceptance of new terms and total flexibility under the agenda for growth , plus pay and a wide range of other issues.

[aiden01]

Fish the September 2nd meeting concides with the House of Commons debate on Royal Mail sell off and announcement of a ballot at a union meeting 150 metres from the House Of Commons will capture a lot of media attention.

It's is not too late according to a leaker Royal Mail document the prespectous will not be due out till mid to late September at the earliest!

This dispute is about so much more then pensions , outsourcing , franchising , two tier workforce , acceptance of new terms and total flexibility under the agenda for growth , plus pay and a wide range of other issues.

Why do the union never explain this to members in simple layman terms instead of a load of jargon ie what you,ve just said a wide range of other issues no one has a clue what is going on unless they are on this site even then it,s only little bits and pieces and loads of rumours hope cwu explain well to members what they are being asked to take industrial action on or I fear the worst a no vote.

[LinChong]

If we allow too many issues to be resolved at the same time we will get shafted by a new all encompassing agreement that will probably include a no strike clause. This has been the pattern in previous national disputes. We must learn from history. There should be no more 'deals of the century'.

Sorting out the pensions first doesn't mean we can't sort out the other stuff afterwards. However, if we get a result with the pensions, it might be enough to at least postpone privatisation and we go on with a win under our belts.

Our message to the public must be clear and the fact that an attempt is being made to downgrade our pensions just after state aid shows that the workforce is being asked to pay for privatisation. It has come about because the plan to have the government take over more of the pension liability did not succeed. We need to push at this weak point and if the IA issue was just pensions, the CMA would come out too.

All this could happen just as the adverts for the shares appear on people's flatscreens. The shares can't be a safe investment if they need to pull this stunt with the pensions to make Royal Mail saleable. Remember, the USO is also a cost that is not going to go away. I don't think any sensible investor would touch this IPO with a barge pole.

The fact that the 'privatise at all costs' camp think they can get away with making us pay for our own demise shows their lack of understanding and contempt not just for the workforce but also for the British public at large.

[dvbuk55]

It's the 22nd of August so to wait until 2nd September isn't an unconscionable time particularly as I think that could well be time spent galvanising a yes vote and a very large proportion of returned ballots. One of the things that is worrying is the thought of many members not returning the ballot paper, either way, YES or NO.
Personally I'll be voting YES and will stand on the picket line as I have always done.

Don't let us down CWU - this time it really is sh*t or bust.