Time to unite and fight

[Martin Walsh]

Look I understand many on hearwere angry and dislussioned with the union over pay and mod. Some believe it was a sell out and are adamant that they will not support the cwu in future.

However the battles we face be it from the mandleson joint venture or Royal Mail`s slash and burn appoach to our terms and conditions drawfs anything we have faced before.

I have been involved in the union for a considerable time. And remember a more bitter and controversial national agreement the Way Forward.We had taken 8 days strike action over the employee agenda in 1996 before a number of joint working parties were set up to explore a range of issues including teamworking and believe it or not monthly pay. Evenutally John Keggie the then DGSP attempted to introduce a national agreement it went to ballot and it was defeated. The cwu then attempted a Branch consultation exercise which led to a special confernce.

Despite several motions being carried at the special conference in Bournemouth John and then PEC decided to put the agreement out to ballot again without achieving the ammendments which the speical conference had instructed. This time the agreement was narrowly accepted and the bitterness which followed was far greater then pay and Mod.

John Keggie surivied a no confidnence vote by just one Branch at Annual Confernce and a number of PEC members were voted off including John Ireland.

The Way forward was without doubt far more contreversial then pay and mod as it meant a pay resutucturing saturday premumn ect went , it changed the way annual leave was done no more queens birthday etc and it change the way of working.

However did it finish the CWU no it didt as we moved the issue forward and we eventually achieved the 5 day week and the biggest pay rise in history £26.28.

The point of this story is that its time to unite. Yes you can contniue to moan about pay and mod and you may or may not be justified. But you will allow Royal Mail to push their new modernaisation plans forward without resistance which are far worse then anything which the union has agreed in the past.

It really is time to unite and fight together to ensure that we achieve the right agreement for our members.

We cant change the past but we can fight and shape the future.

[DemonPostie]

The whole way through reading that, I was whistling "Solidarity Forever..."

Right on brother.

-e

[dvbuk55]

And I was thinking "Who didn't feed the cat"?

We are a long way away from Keggie and the Way Forward and please the £26 IS history.

We aren't a united workforce in the workplace let alone within the union.

In any office you will find a percentage on short contracts and start times that vary by as much as 4 hours and those are delivery duties. Take a resign now, there are so many duties "exempt" it's barely worth the work involved. Talk has always been cheap it's finding the common ground on which everyone will stand and frankly barring the few there aren't that many prepared to defend the principle at their expense. If a national ballot was to go ahead and fail as it did the time before last - and that was before the disparity in working conditions - the consequence would indeed be dire.

So before we start unfurling the banners we should take stock of what we stand to lose and be absolutely certain that victory is assured.

[postghost]

Commendable words, but I feel its too late.

People STILL use their own cars, come in early, prep d2d at home and dont claim ot in the event of the dm "questioning" them.

I blame these idiots as detailed above for giving RM the ammunition to justify their mass cull.

[Thorby Bislam]

Commendable words, but I feel its too late.

People STILL use their own cars, come in early, prep d2d at home and dont claim ot in the event of the dm "questioning" them.

I blame these idiots as detailed above for giving RM the ammunition to justify their mass cull.

Me too. The Way Forward was a bitch, SDD was worse, Pay and Mod is just plain sickening, and they've thieved our pension (with the union's compliance). And still, people are prepared to work for nothing. When will they ever learn ?