Unions acting to protect members, you and your children

[fishtank]

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ON NOVEMBER 4 I will join more than 100,000 postal workers in our first day of national strike action for four years. We have the company peddling propaganda at a cost of millions, the Government spreading lie after lie about the sale of Royal Mail and the right wing media taking every opportunity possible to mislead the public about why we are taking action.

Despite all of the above, postal workers delivered a crushing four to one YES vote in favour of strike action and in support of their union.

The response of Royal Mail and the Government has been to try to twist the voting figures and highlight the Communication Workers Union (CWU) members who did not vote.

If this issue wasn't so serious it would be laughable. A coalition government that nobody voted for questioning a legal ballot. A company whose former managerial recruitment strategy was based on what golf club you belonged to questioning democracy. Both clearly desperate, out of touch and trying to muddy the waters.

The press tell the public that postal workers should be grateful and that we've all just received £3,500 worth of shares. They omit to say we cannot sell them for at least three years when they will be worthless and that in return for these shares the Government has opened the door for hedgefunders and speculators to attack our terms and conditions.

The public are told the Great British Post Office is in safe hands. It is now in the hands of the Singapore government and other investors purely interested in making profit and have no care whatsoever for the Postal Service of this country.

The name 'Royal Mail' will go, this monarch will be the last ever allowed on the face of a stamp and the Crown will be lost from the company logo. The British public are not stupid. They know what privatisation means – worsening services and higher costs. The £1 stamp is imminent.

Our Royal Mail was undersold by at least £1bn. It was nothing more than a fire sale based on ideology. That £1bn could have gone into the NHS, education, the fire service or into warming our elderly population. Instead it went straight into the pockets of the rich speculators. Of course postal workers are the villains here for wanting to protect themselves from further attacks.

Last week teachers in certain regions took strike action as part of a co-ordinated set of action. I was proud to speak at a teachers' rally in Plymouth. Like Posties, they are being targeted by the press and the Government for having the temerity to defend themselves and the children they educate.

Despite the teachers never taking a pensions payment holiday and previously agreeing to boost their contributions, they are being asked to face the prospect of working until the age of 68.

I never knew that teachers started the economic crisis. I've never known a teacher to receive a multi-million-pound bonus but they must still pay for those extravagances and risks? I have a young child and I do not want him taught physical education by a 68-year-old teacher. I do not want that talented teacher put under such pressure that they look elsewhere for career options.

Our teachers are now being told by Michael Gove they can accept localised pay and that unqualified teachers are fine to take their places in the classrooms of our children. Isn't it funny how Gove doesn't propose regional pay for some of his MP colleagues out in the shires and that he doesn't fancy adjusting his gold-plated pension and working until 68.

Parents should stop and think about the consequences of Gove's proposals. Would you let an unqualified surgeon give you a heart operation? Would you let an unqualified mechanic remove your car engine? This is our children's education at stake and this man is playing politics.

Gove drives at a test mentality putting teachers under unbearable pressure and leaving our children capable of passing a one-off test but minus a rounded education. Perhaps fittingly this obsession over testing that Gove oversees is against the backdrop of him having failed his own driving test seven times.

The media paint the image of lazy teachers and are all too quick to feed the misconception of teachers having 13 weeks a year off and working a 6-hour day. This is an insult to professionals who will spend 10 hours in the workplace, take marking home every night, supervise numerous after school clubs and spend any spare times/holidays planning for the next term.

I have heard some parents who have been angry at the teachers taking strike action for a day leaving them with childcare difficulties. The reality is, though, if the teachers don't win this dispute then your children will suffer the consequences every single day for the rest of their lives.

Firefighters across the UK have already taken action. Like the postal workers and teachers they have been a target for the media. Like postal workers and teachers they are having their pensions robbed and are facing the prospect of being forced to work longer.

On top of this, savage cutbacks will now leave many cities and towns with fire coverage that is more suitable to a rural area. All we hear from the Government is about how much money this will save. This is a Government putting a price on life. The emergency services are there for exactly that – emergencies. If you needed a firefighter would you want a 65-year-old who may or may not be able to make it because he or she had a second job?

The cuts to the fire service will cost lives. This Government knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

The Action by our Teachers, Postal Workers and Firefighters is building to a point where it will surely be co-ordinated and joined by those also under attack, like NHS workers.

The politicians are completely out of touch. Cameron tells us to put on a jumper if we can't afford energy bills but stands by while the British Gas CEO pockets a £2m bonus. Cable tells us that the £1bn excess from the sale of Royal Mail is 'froth'. I suppose it would be froth to the cabinet of multi-millionaires. To working people it is akin to burning that money in front of our eyes as families struggle.

Postal Workers are not on strike for money. We are not on strike for time off. We are on strike to defend ourselves and to defend Mrs Smith in Penzance or Mr Jones in Arbroath. The Royal Mail is part of the social fabric of this Country and we will not stand by and see it torn to pieces.

Teachers are not on strike for longer holidays. They are not on strike for better terms. They are on strike to protect themselves and to protect the education of our children and grandchildren.

Firefighters are not on strike to protect a right to a second job. They are not on strike to fend off change. They are on strike because they refuse to put their lives on the line and get their conditions ripped up in return. They are on strike because if YOU need someone to save your life they want to be there.

Foodbanks across the UK are oversubscribed, elderly people are dying in their homes because they are being forced to choose between heating and eating. The press must be right though. It must be the fault of 'Greedy Posties', 'Lazy Teachers' and 'Got it Easy Firefighters'.

If now isn't the time to stand up and say enough is enough then when is?

I am proud to be a Postal Worker, proud to be a Trade Union member and I am prepared to take action alongside my colleagues to defend myself and the service we provide. Please respect us for doing so.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

[Lincox]

Brilliant, a great response to that Cornwall numpty who wants to get on the Tory payroll.

[Chelseablue]

Hear hear ,We All need to stand up for our jobs And t n cs cause if we don't were f ked big time .

[daveallum]

Well said Fish,brought a lump to my throat especially as I have a wife and daughter working in the NHS and a very good friend who is a fireman and is dreading the thought of trying to rush up a ladder when he's 68.

I believe this country is heading for a revolution.

[dalesman]

supernoodle is also wrong about saving life's, earlier this year i found an elderly lady outside her door lying in the slushy snow with a broken Shoulder. With a outdoor temperature 3c she didn't have much time left. Anyway i called the ambulance and she made a very good recovery.

[bedrock]

the union should send a copy of this to all members,spot on in layman terms well done brother

[lovejoy]

Glad it went down well lads.

[walkertom]

Excellent!

I was asked by an anti-union colleague, "had I handed my shares back?" I asked him, "did you demand minimum-wage, no sick pay and unpaid breaks when you joined the company 10 years ago?"