Belgian postal workers strike against Liberalisation

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Belgian postal workers strike against barbarian invasion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009 ... ost-strike" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tens of thousands of Belgian postal workers will stage an all-out national strike tomorrow in protest at privatisation, jobs losses, a likely squeeze on pay and liberalisation of Europe's mail market in 2011.

The strike by more than 30,000, followed by two further days of disruption, comes as Belgium's La Poste – and other continental operators – have been linked with buying the up-to-30% stake in Royal Mail to be auctioned by the UK government.

Belgian unions are incensed that Danish Post, one of those interested in buying into Royal Mail, is selling its 24.9% stake in La Poste to private equity firm CVC Partners for €373m (£330m) – earning a profit of more than €200m in three years. CVC, in turn, sold its 22% stake in Danish Post to the state-owned Swedish operator.

The Danish operator, which is merging with Sweden's Posten, paid about €150m for its stake in a joint venture with CVC in 2006 that took 50%, minus one share, in La Poste. The Belgian state owns 50% plus one share and must approve any change in the ownership structure.

Yesterday Piet van Speybroeck, La Poste's chief spokesman, said of reports that La Poste would bid for the Royal Mail stake: "I have absolutely no comment to make."

It is, however, more likely that the Danes will team up with CVC to bid for the holding. Others in the frame are the Swedes, Germany's part-privatised Deutsche Post and TNT of the Netherlands, the front runner.

The main British postal workers' union, the CWU, is understood to have warned the chief executives of all these and other potential bidders that his union will "strongly oppose" any move by them to buy into Royal Mail. The warning comes in a confidential letter from its leader, Billy Hayes.

The EU's postal market will be fully open to competition in 2011 and Belgian unions fear this could hasten trends to cut costs by shedding labour and/or moving staff onto part-time or temporary contracts. That process has accelerated since 2006, when the Danes and CVC formed their consortium.

Van Speybroeck told the Guardian: "We deplore that the strike has been launched which is bad for customers and is taking place even before negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement to cover the next few years have begun.

"There have been many changes in the past seven years and it's hard for people to accept more in future. We understand the feeling of general dissatisfaction but there's no alternative. We have got to change as we're not fully ready for 2011 and EU liberalisation."

La Poste reported operating earnings (before exceptionals) of €162.7m in 2007 and is due to announce its 2008 results in April. In recent days Sweden's Posten has declared annual operating profit last year of Skr1.9bn (£147m), Deutsche Post an operating loss of €567m after huge losses and restructuring charges at its US business and TNT an operating profit of €982m.

[Yahoorsur]

Well done the Belgian posties.

[baldrick]

We are prevented by the Tory Anti-Union Laws from striking against privatisation.
The EU Social Contract legislation would have given us the right to strike, but Blair
opted the UK out of that.
Best of luck to our colleagues in Belgium.

[POSTMAN]

In July 2003, a large-scale strike occurred at the Belgian Post Office, triggered by the implementation of Geo-route for organising delivery rounds.
More strikes happened in 2006 as Geo-route '2' was used, Geo-route had led to redundancies and an increased workload for the postal delivery workers.

According to the company’s management, "It is vital we reorganise the postal delivery rounds so that they can be completed by fewer people."

The unions had underlined the heavy increase in the workload for postal delivery workers. According to a representative,"many delivery routes are impossible to complete in the time allotted and, despite the promises made, the imbalance between delivery services has still not been resolved".

Another problem highlighted by the trade unions is the fact that the same productivity level is required for all delivery personnel, regardless of age. In this context, many older workers find it difficult to keep up with the new pace of work.

Sound familiar?

[k979aaa]

We are prevented by the Tory Anti-Union Laws from striking against privatisation.
The EU Social Contract legislation would have given us the right to strike, but Blair
opted the UK out of that.
Best of luck to our colleagues in Belgium.

And still some in my place of work have a good word to say about NEW LABOUR SHAME ON THEM

[BELIAL]

We are prevented by the Tory Anti-Union Laws from striking against privatisation.
The EU Social Contract legislation would have given us the right to strike, but Blair
opted the UK out of that.
Best of luck to our colleagues in Belgium.

WHAT Not that I doubt you ,but please elaborate

[baldrick]

The Tory anti-union legislation makes it unlawful to strike for 'political'
objectives or against Goverment policies. If a Trade Union were to propose
to ballot its members to do so, it would be open to the Employer (or anyone else)
to go to the Courts to get an injunction to prevent them from doing that, with
the sanction of fines, imprisonment, or sequestration of funds and property.
Billy did say on a BBC interview last week that the CWU would not be able
to take strike action against privatisation because of the Anti-Union legislation.

[BELIAL]

Cheers Tow the line Billy eh. Guess i'll just have to strike about the variation of my contract then

[BELIAL]

And while we are on the subject, how about getting a commitment from all TUC affiliated unions to cease all Labour funding if this bill passes ,cos they WILL be next in line.
Just as an afterthought ,when we are on strike ,and mandy busses in the new army of unemployed on pain of losing their benefits,maybe we could ask the public to seal their boxes in support of the public service

[POSTMAN]

http://euronews.net/en/article/02/03/20 ... rs-strike/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thousands of Belgian postal workers marched through the capital Brussels on Monday at the start of a three-day strike........

[baldrick]

http://euronews.net/en/article/02/03/20 ... rs-strike/

Thousands of Belgian postal workers marched through the capital Brussels on Monday at the start of a three-day strike........

Well done Belgian posties!
We should be doing the same. :mfo

[Wessex]

If ,as it seems ,that our European counterparts are fighting similar battles to ourselves isnt it time that we join together with our colleagues overseas and pursue joint actions ?