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[The_Wax_Man]

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1st August 2013


The Communication Workers Union has today (Thursday) agreed to hold a national strike ballot of Royal Mail workers unless protections for jobs and services can be secured.

Around 500 CWU reps met at the union's policy forum in London today and voted unanimously in favour of holding a national strike ballot in Royal Mail no later than September 2013. If the ballot goes ahead it will include 115,000 postal workers in Royal Mail (excluding Parcelforce and the Post Office) and would be the first ballot for national strike action in Royal Mail since September 2009.


Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "The current situation cannot go on. Postal workers are being squeezed in their workplaces, facing an uncertain future and changes to their pensions. There hasn't yet been a pay rise for staff this year despite healthy company profits of £403 million. But most importantly, we want protections for job security and terms and conditions and these are sadly lacking.

"CWU is committed to holding serious negotiations with Royal Mail to achieve settlement on these issues, but efforts to date do not bode well.

"The company only began to seriously negotiate with us following our consultative ballot in June, which showed 99% of postal workers back the union's position on pay, 96% are opposed to privatisation and 92% are willing to take part in a boycott of competitors' mail and to withdraw cooperation on workplace changes.

"We do not take the decision to hold a strike ballot lightly. However, we will stop at nothing to ensure the future of our members' jobs - and of the services they deliver - are protected."


22nd October 2013

Postal workers in Royal Mail voted by 4 to 1 (78%) in favour of strike action in a move to protect their jobs, terms and conditions and secure a pay rise.



CWU is allowing two weeks from the day the ballot closed (Wednesday 16th October) to reach an agreement but has also announced that strike action will take place on Monday 4th November if no agreement is concluded by that date. This would be one day of all-out strike action, with further action under consideration. The union is also announcing a new ballot that will enable postal workers to boycott competitors' mail, to supplement the strike action.


Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "Postal workers have spoken very clearly that they care about their jobs, terms and conditions far more than they care about shares. The stakes have become much higher for postal workers since privatisation making this ballot more important than ever. Postal workers will not be the people who pay for the profits of private operators and faceless shareholders.

"We have said from the beginning that we want an agreement and we still do. The question now is whether this privatised Royal Mail still wants an agreement. We have offered the company a two week period to reach an agreement and having already had many hours of negotiation, this is achievable if there is a will. The clock is ticking for both sides and we need Royal Mail to work to reach agreement before this deadline.

"What we want is a groundbreaking, long term, legally binding agreement that not only protects postal workers' job security, pay and pensions - but will also determine the strategy, principles and values of how the Royal Mail Group will operate as a private entity.

"This means there will be no further breakup of the company, no franchising of individual offices or delivery rounds, no introduction of a cheaper workforce on two-tier terms and conditions and no part time industry.

"It will mean - regardless of who owns Royal Mail - this company will not be able to enter the race to the bottom and replicate the employment practices and service standards of their competitors."

Boycott

At the same time as announcing a 24 hour strike, the CWU today has announced they will carry out a second ballot asking workers to support action less than strike action, to carry out a boycott of competitors' mail.

Dave Ward added: "On top of a strike, the union will seek a mandate from members to carry out the boycott of competitors' mail. In law, this needs a separate ballot and we will commence the procedures for this at the earliest opportunity. The boycott will be used to supplement strike action. Royal Mail needs to reach an agreement with us now and avoid the consequences of these two types of action from postal workers."

The ballot result in full was:

Turnout: 63% (71,913)

Yes votes: 78% (56,339)

No votes: 22% (15,624)



30th October 2013

Royal Mail and CWU have made progress in talks and commit to finalising an agreement in the next two weeks which will include the following:-

1. Legal protections for employees that extend beyond the current three year offer.

2. An improved pay and reward offer.

3. A separate pensions agreement.

4. An agenda for growth underpinned by a culture of consensual change, timely decision making and industrial stability supported by alternative dispute resolution processes.

5. An agreed approach to aligning resourcing to workload with a resolution to any current workload and resourcing issues.

6. An overview of the future parcels and letters strategy.

7. A joint company/CWU charter shaping the ongoing values and principles of the Royal Mail Group.

8. An ongoing operational programme of work.

9. The individual elements outlined above will only be deemed agreed when everything is agreed.
On the basis of the aforementioned CWU agree to stand down the 24 hour strike planned for the 4th November.

Royal Mail agree to extend the legal validity of the current industrial action ballot until 20th November

Both parties will clear diaries to ensure all our efforts are focused on reaching an agreement by the 13th November.





13th November 2013


Progress made during intense negotiations between the union and Royal Mail in the two weeks since industrial action was called off leads to a seven-day extension of the validity of the industrial action ballot to allow time to "resolve outstanding issues".

Deputy general secretary Dave Ward explains the current situation: "At this stage it has not been possible to finalise an agreement on all the issues involved in the dispute.


"After appraising the postal executive of the progress made it has been agreed that negotiations should continue with a view to resolving all outstanding issues. The union has accepted an offer from the company to grant a final seven-day extension to the industrial action ballot which means that the ballot will remain legally valid until 27 November 2013.

"Members should rest assured that we are committed to reaching an agreement in the next week and that consideration will be given to serving notice for industrial action should this not happen," said Dave.



20th November 2013


A week of intensive talks between CWU and Royal Mail reached its deadline today (Wednesday 20 November). Upon reaching this deadline the following statement has been issued:

'There has been further progress in the negotiations between Royal Mail and CWU. Accordingly, both sides have agreed to an extension of the ballot deadline to allow for talks to continue. This is the final extension and is agreed for a further seven days.


26th November 2013


The union's postal executive met yesterday afternoon (Monday) to discuss the latest position on national talks with Royal Mail and next steps.

In light of significant progress made the postal executive agreed to the company's offer to extend the validity of the industrial action ballot until the final permissible date, 3rd December 2013 - the last date that notice of strike action can be served.


"We understand that CWU members will be concerned about the length of time that it is taking to finalise an agreement. However, turning elements of a collective agreement into what will become a legally enforceable contract is a complicated process," explained CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward.

"We are confident that negotiations will conclude during this extended period and that a final agreement will soon be placed before the executive council for endorsement in the very near future," he said.

The postal executive is due to meet again on Monday 2nd December 2013.

Below is a summary of the current position of talks:

Legal Protections

An extensive legally binding undertaking from the employer on all the issues put forward by the union has now been secured. These protections will extend beyond 3 years. There are a couple of final points to resolve but it is not anticipated that these will prevent an agreement being reached.

Pay

An improved closed offer from the company is currently under consideration.

Pensions

Negotiations have been concluded on pensions and legally binding commitments on the future of the RMPP alongside additional improvements to the Defined Contribution Scheme which have been secured. The company has accepted that members will be balloted on a pensions agreement separately.

Industrial stability, new culture and agenda for growth

A section on industrial stability which strengthens the existing IR Framework with new mediation procedures is in the process of being finalised. The agreement will not include any commitment to binding arbitration or a no strike deal. The new approach will also offer CWU unprecedented access to business structures and provide the opportunity for real influence on the future direction of the company.

Delivery workload issues

Whilst some progress has been made there are still difficult areas to resolve and a fresh approach is being considered.

Future parcels and letter strategy

Drafts have been exchanged and it looks likely that there will be no issues preventing an agreement on future strategy.

Company charter

The company has accepted the principle of a charter setting out the values on how Royal Mail Group will operate in the future. Drafts have been exchanged and it does not look like there will be any issues preventing a final agreement being reached.

Ongoing programme of work

There are currently no issues in this section which will prevent us from reaching agreement.


4th December 2013

Following extensive negotiations between the union and Royal Mail on all issues contained in the current dispute, CWU is pleased to announce the two parties have reached a negotiators' proposed agreement.


This proposed agreement covers pay, legal protections for terms and conditions, industrial stability and pensions.

The proposed agreement will now be considered by the union's postal executive over the next few days and will ultimately be subject to a ballot of the union's members.

During the ratification process, the industrial action ballot remains valid.

Details of the proposed agreement will be made available following the conclusion of the meeting of the union's postal executive.

[dvbuk55]

Thanks Waxie, great post. I call one of my sons in law "gunna" because he is always gunna do something - bit like the union really, "we're gunna" but never actually do.