The election of the General Secretary

[gluteus maximus]

Is the election one member one vote or individual branch nominations??

[baldrick]

Candidates can be nominated by Branches, but the actual elections are always one member one vote.

[britwrit]

Whenever I watched him being interviewed on TV, Dave Ward always seemed grounded and down to earth. I know that's a pretty flimsy reason to vote for him but oh well...

[dvbuk55]

Whenever I watched him being interviewed on TV, Dave Ward always seemed grounded and down to earth. I know that's a pretty flimsy reason to vote for him but oh well...

Nobody north of Watford will be voting anyway, at least I'd be surprised if they managed a 25% turnout overall.

[General Mannerheim]

Whoever gets elected he will get fatter.

[Homer]

Its Dave Ward for me, Ive worked for RM for a lot of years and before he came into office we had to put up with s**t pay awards of 1% or less, basic pay was a joke even though RM was making millions and the government was taking 90% of the profits, people who moan about the pay and conditions now have probably not been in the job through them years.
I remember voting for him the first time, I was that p***ed off with getting s**t on, I looked through the candidates and just voted for anyone who was militant, yes hes made mistakes but for me hes been the best weve had.

[Lincox]

Its Dave Ward for me, Ive worked for RM for a lot of years and before he came into office we had to put up with s**t pay awards of 1% or less, basic pay was a joke even though RM was making millions and the government was taking 90% of the profits, people who moan about the pay and conditions now have probably not been in the job through them years.
I remember voting for him the first time, I was that p***ed off with getting s**t on, I looked through the candidates and just voted for anyone who was militant, yes hes made mistakes but for me hes been the best weve had.

He may well be the best there has been, I have not been with Royal Mail long enough to judge that. The unfortunate problem with most people that occupy a seat of power is that in the long term, maintaining that seat becomes more important to them than the reasons that they gained the seat in the first place.

[silly suffolk]

perhaps dvbuk55 will stand. and then we will all walk into the sunlit uplands when he wins. and perhaps get a locker job like him.

[dvbuk55]

perhaps dvbuk55 will stand. and then we will all walk into the sunlit uplands when he wins. and perhaps get a locker job like him.

Too late the locker job has already gone when I retired - now as for standing - you obviously are unaware of how the union recruits its nominees, there's probably a better chance of becoming PM.

[Martin Walsh]

Postman the only reason you think that way is Billy since he was elected to General Secretary has undervalued the job and been too friendly with the Labour Party. If you read the description of the role of the General Secretary it states he is the lead negotiator for the CWU. Billy has hardly used that in his 14 years as General Secretary.

Alan Johnson , Derek Hodgson , Alan Tuffin and Tom Jackson were general secretaries who did negotiate as well as being a figure head.

Bob Crowe was a figure head but also went into negotiations when required.

The role of the GS is too take the union forward both politically and industrially.

Most unions are facing the same attacks franchising , outsourcing , two tier workforce , agency staff doing the job cheaper , different pay rates for staff deoending on when you started in the job , zero hour contracts and attacking pensions and terms and conditions.

Telecoms have seen most of the above with call centres outsourced to India etc , agency staff doing it for cheaper etc.

Parcel force have seen owner self employed drivers being recuited

Post office staff have seen their jobs outsourced and cut as have Romec and Quadrant.

Under Royal Mail we have seen loss of mail centres RDCs and jobs reduced in delivery. We have both privisation and unfair competition. What some of you don't seem to realise is the shareholders are putting the squeeze on Royal Mail about the margins on some workloads and would want to outsource this work load but we have a legal guarantee that they can't. However the pressure is on.

The trade union movement and the General Secretary of the CWU hopefully Dave Ward will lead a campaign which changes the law on workers rights , in Germany there is a minimum wage for postal workers which firms cannot under cut these are things which the union can and must influence if we don't then we will see workers terms and conditions destroyed including our own all in the name of profit.

There is not going to be a candidate from the shop floor as if that person was so good he would be an area rep or higher by now if he wanted to go higher as there are a lot of good local reps who do not want to hold an higher union postion as it does take over their life !

[dvbuk55]

Postman the only reason you think that way is Billy since he was elected to General Secretary has undervalued the job and been too friendly with the Labour Party. If you read the description of the role of the General Secretary it states he is the lead negotiator for the CWU. Billy has hardly used that in his 14 years as General Secretary!

And its taken 14 years to find out that Billy was useless? Well that is truly an indictment of the organisation of the union as a whole and how far reaching is it. How many full time union employees are also holding post for lack of competition and not fulfilling their role? So if Billy hasn't negotiated anything and DW has been taking the lead role, then why change anything? Let Billy bow out gracefully and do away with the GS role saving the union a load of money, especially if they don't take all their holidays for 9 years and claim a hefty lump sum. It's a sudden turnaround from the days when the sun shone out of Billy's backside, I can imagine his thoughts this weekend will be "Et tu dingo" .

If DW has been making the decisions then why would his negotiating be any different as GS than it was as DGPS?

[aiden01]

Postman the only reason you think that way is Billy since he was elected to General Secretary has undervalued the job and been too friendly with the Labour Party. If you read the description of the role of the General Secretary it states he is the lead negotiator for the CWU. Billy has hardly used that in his 14 years as General Secretary!

And its taken 14 years to find out that Billy was useless? Well that is truly an indictment of the organisation of the union as a whole and how far reaching is it. How many full time union employees are also holding post for lack of competition and not fulfilling their role? So if Billy hasn't negotiated anything and DW has been taking the lead role, then why change anything? Let Billy bow out gracefully and do away with the GS role saving the union a load of money, especially if they don't take all their holidays for 9 years and claim a hefty lump sum. It's a sudden turnaround from the days when the sun shone out of Billy's backside, I can imagine his thoughts this weekend will be "Et tu dingo" .

If DW has been making the decisions then why would his negotiating be any different as GS than it was as DGPS?

[silly suffolk]

perhaps dvbuk55 will stand. and then we will all walk into the sunlit uplands when he wins. and perhaps get a locker job like him.

Too late the locker job has already gone when I retired - now as for standing - you obviously are unaware of how the union recruits its nominees, there's probably a better chance of becoming PM.

to my knowledge ward or hayes never went to eton, or Oxbridge. so I like to think the cwu are more egalitarian than the political cabal in Westminster.

[dvbuk55]

perhaps dvbuk55 will stand. and then we will all walk into the sunlit uplands when he wins. and perhaps get a locker job like him.

Too late the locker job has already gone when I retired - now as for standing - you obviously are unaware of how the union recruits its nominees, there's probably a better chance of becoming PM.

to my knowledge ward or hayes never went to eton, or Oxbridge. so I like to think the cwu are more egalitarian than the political cabal in Westminster.

Well silly I suggest you look up the meaning of cabal and I can confirm neither had an Eton nor Oxbridge education and I would suggest that's blatantly obvious.

Cabal - The use of this term usually carries strong connotations of shadowy corners, back rooms and insidious influence.

[fishtank]

The Night of the Long Knives...

As has already been stated the real prize is the DGSP position,who has been promised that one in return for supporting Dave?, Definitely machiavellian moves afoot. Billy knows he's a goner if he stands against Dave so why stand? Keep up the pretence of a democratic union maybe, The whole things smells like a pair of my work socks.
As Postman says the members couldn't give a rat's arse, could be a record low turnout.