363/15 Government Announcement to Privatise Remaining 30%

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches





No. 363/15

4th June 2015

To: All CWU Branches


Dear Colleague

Government Announcement to Privatise Remaining 30% of Royal Mail

The Government has today announced its intention to sell off the remaining 30% of Royal Mail. In response the Union has sent out the attached press release condemning the Government’s action.

Following the earlier privatisation fiasco, the sale of the remaining 30% shows the Tories true colours. They have no interest in standing up for working people and are only interested in privatisation dogma to make the rich richer. Neither does this Government have any interest in maintaining the Universal Service Obligation and this action will threaten the very existence of our six day delivery service.

The Union will strongly oppose this final part of the sale as well as continuing to campaign against competition and the race to the bottom, which privatisation inevitably brings. All CWU Branches will be able to discuss this development and the response required by the Union as part of our National Briefing on the 19th June.

The CWU has made it clear to both existing and any potential new shareholders that any attempt to undermine the legally binding agreement that protects Royal Mail workers’ terms and conditions will be defended, if necessary, through industrial action.

Further information will follow in due course.

Any enquiries should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Department.

Yours sincerely


Dave Ward
General Secretary
For immediate release
04.06.15

CWU opposes final sell off Royal Mail shares

Responding to announcement today (Thursday) by the Chancellor to sell off the government’s remaining shares in Royal Mail, the general secretary of the CWU, Dave Ward, said:

“Today’s announcement shows the Tories true colours, they don’t stand up for working people; instead they are only interested in privatisation dogma and making the rich richer. 

“Neither do they have any interest in maintaining services to the public. And selling off the final 30 per cent of Royal Mail threatens the very existence of the one price goes anywhere, six day delivery service that Royal Mail provides to 29 million UK addresses.

“When the first part of this privatisation was completed by the Coalition we were told that this was because Royal Mail needed private capital to invest in its future, but if you ask the workforce they have seen hardly any new investment but have witnessed the worse type of short term investors making a killing without any regard to the long term future of the company or the services it provides to the public. 

“As a minimum, if this Government wanted to say they were interested in the workers then they could at least increase the workers’ stake in the company.

“The CWU will oppose this final part of the sell off and continue to campaign against unfair competition and the race to the bottom, which privatisation inevitably brings.  Both existing and any new shareholder should be in no doubt – any attempt to undermine the legally binding agreement that protects Royal Mail workers’ terms and conditions will be defended if necessary through strike action.”

Ends

[POSTMAN]

Dear Colleague

Government Announcement to Privatise Remaining 30% of Royal Mail

Following on from yesterday’s announcement that the Government intends to proceed with the sell-off of its remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail, I am writing to let you know the immediate steps we have taken in response to this.

Firstly, we have written to the Government Minister responsible for Royal Mail, Anna Soubry, outlining our opposition to the plans and asking for an urgent meeting with her to discuss this. Secondly, we have contacted the Labour Party and Chuka Umunna (in his role as Shadow Secretary of State for BIS); again asking for an urgent meeting to discuss how they will campaign against this. We have also contacted the SNP to build an alliance against the Government’s proposed action.

There is a clear link between the issues we have been campaigning on with regard to competition, the future of the universal service and employment standards in the postal sector and Government’s latest plans. Full private ownership of Royal Mail will inevitably put greater pressure on these and removes any public voice from the company.

We will give Branches more information about how we will move all of these issues forward at the Postal Branches National Briefing on the 19th June.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward
General Secretary

[fishtank]

We have also contacted the SNP...

So the union that actively encouraged its Scottish members to reject independence would like some help from the SNP?
Could be a short conversation.

[britwrit]

So, with TNT having given up, we've gone from a public monopoly for delivering the mail to a private one.

Well done, free market!