BILLYS SPEECH TO BRANCHES ON HOOPER REPORT

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SPEECH TO BRIEFING OF BRANCHES ON HOOPER REPORT

For some time now the Union has been campaigning to secure a positive future for Royal Mail as a public service.

Since 2001 we have been campaigning against the lack of investment in the industry.

And at the same time, we began campaigning against the problems arising from artificial competition being introduced.

For some time now the Union has been campaigning to secure a positive future for Royal Mail as a public service.

Since 2001 we have been campaigning against the lack of investment in the industry.

And at the same time, we began campaigning against the problems arising from artificial competition being introduced.

We have organised for realistic stamp tariffs through two price controls.

We defeated Allan Leighton’s privatisation proposals in the period 2004 to 2007.


We have campaigned for a Government review of the impact of liberalisation upon Royal Mail. –

This culminated in the convening of the Hooper Review.

We have fought against Crown Office franchising and Post Office closures – with some success and some failures.

We have successfully campaigned for Royal Mail to have the replacement to the Post Office Card Account.

As activists, you may be feeling that you are in a permanent campaign to save our industry from asset strippers.

Yet I think we are in a position where we can get a favourable settlement from the current position. And this is entirely the result of your past dedication to the industry, and the work of our members.

Yes, we have another campaign in front of us. But, our past work has yielded results :

* We have a very good grasp of the economics of the industry.

* We have a great number of experienced activists.

* We have secured a lot of allies and supporters for our initiatives.


Now we must use all these to our advantage following the publication of the Hooper Report.

Later on, Jeremy Baugh is going to give you a presentation on the contents of the Hooper Report.

I am going to explain how we position our response.

Firstly, we neither accept or reject the report in total.

The report contains no new analysis or data on the postal industry.

This isn’t surprising, as Hooper’s team aren’t experts on the postal industry. -

Their estimate of other peoples work is important, but definitely not the last word.

Secondly, the report does not relieve the Government of its responsibilities.

The public would not forgive the Government if it tries to hide behind the ‘independence’ of the report.

There are issues which have to be addressed regardless of anyone’s opinion about this or that recommendation of the report.

Now already we see the problem. The report says that its recommendations are ‘a package’ which must all be implemented.

The Government says that it will implement this package.


And guess what? The argument is that ‘there is no alternative’.

As we told the Tories in their time, so we must tell the Government now – there is always an alternative policy.

The Hooper package is, and I quote:

• Modernisation achieved through partnership

• Tackling the pension deficit

• Changing the regulatory regime


By partnership Hooper means privatisation. The alternative to be mealy-mouthed is being honest with people.

What is our alternative package? It is:

• Modernisation in the public sector
• Tackling the pension deficit
• Change the regulatory regime


Not so difficult that. Concretely what does this mean?

By removing the pensions deficit, the Government immediately creates an additional £280m capital for Royal Mail per year for the next fifteen years.

This operates whether Royal Mail is privatised or in the public sector. Hooper’s proposal is to nationalise the debt and privatise the profit.

We propose to return the profits to the public sector rather than give them to a Dutch Trans-national company.

Equally, Hooper wants to postpone doing anything about the unfair competition around downstream access.

This is despite the fact that his own interim report found that competition was not working.

Instead he proposes to leave the problem for OFCOM to examine in 2010.

We suggest the problem be tackled now. Royal Mail should stop subsidising the competition.

If there is too be competition then they should also pay for the upkeep of the Universal Service Obligation.

These two measures alone will transform the financial position of Royal Mail.

And you know what, if Hooper has his way, they will both be introduced to favour a private company.

Even though these two measures are equally applicable to a public sector Royal Mail.

We didn’t accept that there is no alternative from Thatcher and Major. We won’t accept it from Hooper and the Labour Government.

The first response we are getting from the Government is not acceptable.

We are being told that if we don’t accept privatisation then the Government will not implement the other measures on the pension deficit and changing regulation.

The threat is doing nothing rather than doing something outside of Hooper’s recommendations.

We must refuse to be intimidated by such threats.

Such a stance would, ironically enough, be a break with Hooper who says:


‘Doing nothing, therefore, is not a credible response to the challenge which we have set out in this report’.

On this we agree with Hooper. It is not credible for the Government to:


• Fail to act in support of the USO
• Allow Royal Mail to sink under the weight of the pension deficit
• Allow Postcomm to continue to ruin the postal service.


We will not shirk our responsibility to ensure that it is known inside and outside of Parliament what doing nothing will lead to.

The Government has made one mistake by tying itself to Hooper, in total, with no public debate about the report.

We have to campaign to correct this mistake. Let me give you just one example of the failures in Hooper’s analysis of the need for privatisation.

The report claims that Royal Mail is less efficient than TNT and Deutche Post. Judged by price this is ridiculous.

TNT delivers a hundred gram first class letters at nearly three times the price of Royal Mail. TNT delivers fifty gram letters at twice the price.


And get this – TNT has a Government protected monopoly on the delivery of letters of fifty grams or less.

There is no like for like comparison on that – but the public sector Royal Mail floors the privatised TNT on price.

Or compare with Deutche Post which delivers one hundred gram letters at more than three times the price of Royal Mail. Fifty gram letters at more than double the price of Royal Mail.

Let’s ask the Government whether Hoopers proposals means getting letter prices at privatised rates.

I could go on – but Jeremy will pick this up.

Suffice to say that we intend to demonstrate the fallacy of Hooper’s privatisation proposals by an analysis of the evidence.

How are we going to take this campaign forward?

There are going to be three strands.

Firstly, our direct relation with members of the Parliamentary Labour Party. John Grogan MP, will speak to you on the campaign around EDM 428 that has been placed before Parliament on Wednesday this week.

We intend to secure a platform of support inside the labour movement that the Government cannot ignore.

Secondly, we will work with Compass who wish to campaign to keep Royal Mail as a public service.

Compass are an organisation who can establish alliances far beyond those that the CWU could guarantee. Neal Lawson from Compass will talk to you on this.

Thirdly, and just as importantly, we want to organise our regions, branches and members as an effective lobby.


We need you to win support amongst politicians and the public for our campaign.

Today’s briefing is just the starting point.

There will be a variety of things to do. Indeed, some branches and regions are already organising and planning events. Immediately we want CWU members getting into MPs surgeries.

Of course, we also have to secure this policy through our industrial bargaining and initiatives.

This is particularly true in attempting to secure a new agreement on modernisation - and on reopening the pensions negotiations.

Dave Ward will put these in perspective for you later.

For now, I want to emphasis that I believe we are in a good position to secure a favourable settlement for Royal Mail in the public sector with real benefits for our members.

There is a lot of work to do to make this a reality. But I know you can do it.

Thanks for listening.

Posted by Billy Hayes | @ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:30:27 +0000

[Big Daz]

The prince of Darkness is equally as determined as Billy and the CWU and the rest of the anti sell off allianace

The dark one is in a far better position to win the battle than us as he stands a good chance of Conservative and Lib Dem MP'S backing him wich will outnumber the labour rebellion.

Its all very well to win the battle of ideas amongst the back benches and various other organasations but they are not MP'S voting on the issue! We need to go at the conservatives and lib dems with a passion and fury never seen before, because ultimatley with the dark ones determination its all down to mathematics of how MP'S will vote.

A certain front bench conservatie MP will be getting a piece of my mind in my capacity as a voter in his area.

A free vote for MP'S on this issue is essential