Billy Hayes - ARTICLE FOR TRIBUNE

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.billyhayes.co.uk/permalink.p ... 98_0_1_0_M

The origins of the postal dispute are to be found in the irresponsible liberalisation of the mail market by Postcomm, and the failure of Royal Mail management to get the industry privatised.

The industries regulator, Postcomm, opened Royal Mail’s market up to competition from 2004. This was completed with full market liberalisation in 2006. This is much faster than in the EU, where full liberalisation is being proposed from 2011 onwards.

The result has been a parasitic form of competition called ‘access’ where distribution firms partially sort mail and convey it to Royal Mail sorting office for further process and final delivery. The firms involved in this are effectively being subsidised by Royal Mail in so far as they do not have to bear the cost of maintaining the Network.

As a result, Royal Mail is heading towards a financial crisis, having lost 40% of its high revenue bulk mailings in the past three years. The industries ability to fund the universal service is coming into question.

On top of this, since 2004 Royal Mail management have been campaigning to have Royal Mail privatised. The CWU has campaigned against this, both inside and outside of the Labour Party. As a result, the Labour Government gave a commitment in its 2005 Manifesto, not to privatise Royal Mail.

Attempts by Royal Mail management to have this broken by getting Government to distribute 20% of the shares to staff were finally rejected by the Government in January 2007. But management’s obsession with privatisation meant that it failed to prepare the industry to deal with competition because they assumed they would simply get an injection of private capital in the near future. When this was turned down, management felt it had no choice but to squeeze down upon the staff. Management stated that the staff were overpaid by 25%, and under worked by 40%.

Further, management have now started reducing services rather than planning for a growth of the industry, through introducing new products for customers.

In these circumstances, a dispute was inevitable, as the only way to achieve management’s policy was through attacking the workers terms, conditions and union organisation.

Following an extended dispute in Royal Mail, the CWU is now balloting its membership on a proposed settlement.

This has been a particularly difficult dispute for postal workers and the national negotiators. The liberalisation of the industry is weakening the financial base of Royal Mail.

But in this unfavourable situation, management strongly insisted that they were bound by the very strict limits that the Government has applied to other public sector pay rises.

The industry itself required substantial capital investment which the Union has strongly campaigned for. Such investment is always the mixed blessing, as any new wave of automation carries with it the threat of job losses and the challenge of new working practices.

Negotiations on these matters, earlier this year, took a decidedly sour turn when management indicated that the Union would lose its hard won right to negotiate national and local deals to implement such changes. This reflected genuine bitterness amongst senior management that the Union had defeated its three year campaign to get Royal Mail privatised.

Management’s determination to see this through was clear early in the dispute. Despite the 77% majority for strike action, on a 68% turn-out, management insisted that all that they would offer the Union was an explanation of their Business Plan.

This determination was maintained by management for the whole first period of the dispute. It took strike action, involving most workers in four day’s action involving 130,000 workers, before management agreed to even negotiate.

Up to this point, local managers had also been given the go ahead to break local agreements. As a result there is a good deal of unofficial action.

At this point relations at national level were extremely difficult. TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, acted as a mediator in the talks.

For a further six weeks the Union engaged in strenuous efforts to achieve a settlement. Yet at the end of this, management had moved only very little.

As a consequence, the Union’s national leadership decided to substantially increase the pressure. Having called off the action in order to create the best atmosphere for negotiations, the executive now called for five successive days of national action.

This had a tremendous impact. The network was shutdown tight, and a backlog of around half a billion letters was build up.

With a rolling programme of further strikes proposed, management realised that the game was up, a settlement with the Union had to be reached.

The negotiations remained difficult. But management recognised that the Union would not break up. Consequently, there was no prospect of removing the Union’s influence from national and local bargaining.

The settlement achieved in summary offers 6.9% on the basic hourly rate over 18 months, with an individual lump sum of £175 and a further lump sum of £400 tied to local implementation of change. I believe this is a good settlement given that Royal Mail wanted a pay freeze initially, and would not go further than 2.5% subsequently.

On flexible working, all national and local changes will be subject, in future, to negotiations with the Union. All automation will be subject to agreement with the CWU.

Pensions will be subject to a consultation period, and a separate ballot of the members.

It took more than a million strike days, both official and unofficial, to achieve this result. I think that the settlement represents a success for the efforts of postal workers.

The Union will now be pressing the Government to carry out its commitment to review the liberalisation of Royal Mail. This was a Manifesto commitment secured by the Union in 2005. John Hutton, the Minister responsible, has stated before the Parliamentary Selection Committee that this would go ahead.

What has to be made clear is that Royal Mail provides an essential commercial and public service. At present, the liberalisation arrangements mean that Royal Mail is subsidising the competitors who use its processing and delivery network.

The Government must ensure that the universal service provided at a uniform tariff is maintained. At present the competitors get access to this service without paying for its upkeep.

It is particularly important that the Government grasp this, for the intervention of ministers in the dispute was less than helpful. Many postal workers believe that Government simply took managements side, firstly by not pressing Royal Mail to negotiate, then by pressing the Union to settle too early. The Government is going to have to demonstrate that it values the contribution postal workers provide.

Posted by Billy Hayes | @ Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:22:04 +0000

[AndyK]

It is particularly important that the Government grasp this, for the intervention of ministers in the dispute was less than helpful. Many postal workers believe that Government simply took managements side, firstly by not pressing Royal Mail to negotiate, then by pressing the Union to settle too early. The Government is going to have to demonstrate that it values the contribution postal workers provide.

admission that a deal was forced upon them?

[jafferpants]

What i'd like to know is who wrote that for billy hayes. one things for certain he never. Every time iv'e seen him he can't string two words together.

[BELIAL]

"the intervention of ministers in this dispute was less than helpful" Wonder what the true backstage scale of govt. intervention was? How many warnings and how severe, how many bins trawled through ,how many communications intercepted?

[IWW Fellow Worker]

I'm glad you posted this in here Teebs. The Tribune is one of those Labour leaning papers which has more people writing for it than it has people reading it.

[dvbuk55]

So much for the political fund and the Government who listens to Billy and of course the statement isn't accurate. Not only is the £400 dependant on acceptance but also the 1.5% of the much vaunted 6.9% increase.

Oh what a tangled web we weave..............................

[sol]

It was probably written by Steve Bell. Oh, a 'review'. And what does he expect them to say. Sorry Billy, we were wrong, we're going to abandon liberalisation and return the RM into a public service?

[davidessex]

if we done such a good job, forcing royal mail to give in and listen to cwu, why am i starting at 0615 and not 0500 ? was that a point cwu pec agreed with rm over despite the fact we were striking over it ?

[leelatic]

Why did Billy Hayes not say this about the government at the Labour Conference instead of praising them?

[dvbuk55]

Why did Billy Hayes not say this about the government at the Labour Conference instead of praising them?

Because he is looking for some sort of reward for years of pandering to the labour glitterati, perhaps a peerage, knighthood a nice safe labour seat - I mean can you imagine his maiden speech - "Erm ..................... (long pause) .............. erm .............awright la" oh I hope it's my constituency - it'll be the first tiime I've voted Tory in 40+ years of voting.

[G4GYJ]

Don't you all relise it's a stepping stone to fame and fortune in the house of commons.

[jafferpants]

Don't you all relise it's a stepping stone to fame and fortune in the house of commons.

When was it ever any different!!!!!!!