Phase 4 of the Pay and Modernation Agreement

[Ahebban]

I am happy to be corrected on this ...

My understanding was that the 2007 Pay & Modernisation Agreement was recommended for acceptance to the membership in a ballot not because it was a great deal for CWU members (clearly it was not!) but because RM threatened legal action, using anti-Trade Union law, which could have led to crippling fines being imposed on the CWU for failing to conduct the national dispute legally.

[Big Daz]

what on earth was the union thinking when it signed off on this.

They were given a mandate to sign it off by the CWU membership voting yes.


Perhaps it's time to toughen up what we accept as a mandate, perhaps three quarters of the those elligble to vote, voting yes should be the standard.

[Ahebban]

The current industrial action was instigated by rank and file members and the groundswell has left CWU HQ with no option but to support the action. Once again it will be the hard-working Reps who will need to kick ass to mobilise those CWU members seeking to hide behind the action taken by brothers and sisters elsewhere.

The sooner RM can see our strength in numbers the sooner a resolution can be found. Make no mistake, without a new National Agreement or even a revised version of the current Agreement, RM will trample over all of us!

Think of it this way ... Look around your colleagues tomorrow and ask what sort of deal you could cut for yourselves within your own Unit without the CWU against a dominant RM?

Because that is the reality facing all of us - part-time, full-time, union member or not. RM's failure to honour its obligation to, and the spirit of, the 4 phases affects everyone working within RM, whatever your status.

The pay freeze, real reductions in terms and conditions, worsening pension arrangements, the real prospect of longer delivery spans, extra D2Ds are the here and now and not for the future!

[weetrogg]

Upmyroad, it was us the membership who had the final say. My branch recommended a no vote, i voted no but the branch as a whole voted yes as the majority did nationally, having said that though HQ used all the tools at there disposal to secure a yes vote