New agrement & Oxford ?

[Cut Off King]

Just a quick question, page 5 of the CWU Voice mag reads " Oxford strike wins justice"

Under the new agreement, would strike action to save another members job be possible ?

[Martin Walsh]

Every local dispute has to go through the IR framework and a report has to be given supporting the ballot by a Divisional Rep after stage 3.

This agreement maintains this 3 tiers of the IR framework and makes it legally binding the only difference is that if there is no agreement then it will go to external mediation. Whilst this is not binding Royal Mail have been quite open and said it would be strange if they disagreed at stage 3 and then did not accept what the external mediators recommended.

The CWU are not bound by the external mediation.

So the simple answer is yes disputes like Oxford can happen under this agreement. However the aim of both parties is that we must find more pragmatic solutions to. Resolving issues without management first either taking executive action or where it is clearly a wrong decision then to discuss under the early warning procedure to try and find solutions.

There are 62 disagreements and disputes , the test of the new approach is whether we resolve these issues and by resolving them our members in this offices have the final day on the resolutions.

[fishtank]

the test of the new approach is whether we resolve these issues and by resolving them our members in this offices have the final day on the resolutions.

It's just a personal position but I don't think this is the real test of the agreement at all, It's a very political situation and RM will want to be seen to be applying the agreement by the book so the may play soft, In some ways it's probably an ideal time to have a disagreement because I think you'll see more movement from Royal Mail in the next 5 weeks than we've seen in the last 5 years. The real test of the approach will come once the agreement has had time to bed in and particularly if Royal Mail tires of playing cat and mouse over efficiency and office performance.

[Martin Walsh]

Fish i don't think that will be the case there are challenging issues where Royal Mail won't want to do a 360 degree turn and this will test whether Royal Mail are going to be more pragmatic rather than dogmatic. Now your second point , I do think the real challenges for the business is how do you stem the tide in letters being reduced , how do you deal with the loss of Mail to TNT on end to end 2.5 million items per week in west , the city and South West 10% of you offices Mail and how do you capture more Mail and keep the shareholder happy. The key to all the above is you will not do this without industrial stability. There are really only 2 ways to get industrial stability either the company decides to smash the union or it says we will now change the relationship and instead of putting proposal like BT2010 to the CWU it will say you will be involved in working up the proposal which allows the union to put members interests at the heart of the plan.

Instead of having to try and alter a plan through negotiation.

[Cut Off King]

So thats a yes then, if a member is suspended & sacked for wilful delay, the office can walk.

[dvbuk55]

. There are really only 2 ways to get industrial stability either the company decides to smash the union or it says we will now change the relationship and instead of putting proposal like BT2010 to the CWU it will say you will be involved in working up the proposal which allows the union to put members interests at the heart of the plan.

Who in turn then bent over backwards to sell "the deal of the century" to the membership, which in turn leads to AFG 2014 yet another flawed agreement once again foisted on the membership only this time "ground breaking". Now it would seem judging from the last few agreements that what the CWU is doing is protecting itself rather than the interests of the membership and will consequently agree to anything that RM moot.

[PhilthyPhil]

Strike action did not save his job, the tribunal did.

[Ahebban]

the tribunal came to the conclusion that the wiful delay charge was incorrect .. what I heard was that an agreement was reached between the strikers and RM that if the tribunal found in favour of the CWU member then he would be reinstated. The threat of further strike action had a direct effect on RM's decision in agreeing the deal with strikers at the office in question.

[dvbuk55]

the tribunal came to the conclusion that the wiful delay charge was incorrect .. what I heard was that an agreement was reached between the strikers and RM that if the tribunal found in favour of the CWU member then he would be reinstated. The threat of further strike action had a direct effect on RM's decision in agreeing the deal with strikers at the office in question.

Pretty much leaves every office on its own and at the mercy of the managerial hierarchy in the area you work and the competency of the rep and more than anything the support of the members in that office.

[Ahebban]

I would say CWU HQ did themselves no favours in rejecting the case when asked to persue it. The office, section and Branch were very supportive in this case, and all have good reason to be proud of what was achieved. The solidarity of the office when asked to 'walk' was crucial in laying the foundations for persuing the case by the Branch.

It would be nice to think that there is still room for some good old-fashioned trade unionism in these 'can do' times