Roe Valley Socialist - Strike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://roevalleysocialist.blogspot.com/ ... trike.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Please forgive me for the lack of entries in the past fortnight, it's been a busy time and I haven't been able to give the blog the attention I would ideally wish it to receive.

There is one thing, however, that cannot escape attention and that is the beginning of the national postal strike today. In a few hours low-paid postal workers will begin a two-day strike to defend their interests in the face of an arrogant and abusive management, and to defend the principle of the Royal Mail as a public service against a hostile and contemptible government.

There have been over 30 hours of negotiations this week between the Communication Workers Union and Royal Mail but they have reached no agreement. Why? Because Royal Mail do not want an agreement. The CWU have been calling for weeks now for the independent arbitrator, Acas, to become involved to sort out the conflict. Royal Mail have refused, what are they afraid of? The general secretary of the CWU has spoke out in the press and on the airwaves calling for Royal Mail to start the arbitration process without conditions. Royal Mail have refused and Chief Executive Adam Crozier has refused to come out publicly and explain himself. Instead, they announce the hiring of 30,000 untrained and unvetted temporary workers to act as strikebreakers in a flagrant breach of employment law. What is more, a leaked document seen by the BBC makes it very clear that Royal Mail sees an industrial dispute as a means to break the union and break the spirits of its thousands of employees. It is often said that we live in a democracy but what sort of democracy is it where ordinary people are treated with such contempt and disdain in their place of work?

The media have been quick to rubbish the claims of the postal workers that they deserve to stand up for themselves by spouting the usual misconceptions. Mail is down they say, citing the growth of the internet. However, the growth of the internet cuts both ways; letters may be down as the major means of communication due to the growth of email but the internet has seen a massive boom in packages and parcels from online retailers. Indeed, as an ordinary postman pointed out in last week's Indepedent, Royal Mail have been deliberately attempting to massage the figures downwards. Moreover, it is a little-mentioned fact that because of their universal service obligation, Royal Mail postmen have to deliver the 'final mile' for their private competitors (such as TNT) who are able to reap the profits from lucrative BT contracts without physically delivering the mail through peoples' letterboxes.

The workers need to accept 'modernisation', the management say. The CWU themselves have said this many times and, indeed, entered into the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement, which has seen the loss of 63,000 jobs already. Hardly a union which is blocking developments. Indeed, it is the breakdown of this very agreement which has precipitated the strike. Royal Mail management clearly wish to push 'modernisation' over the heads of their workers no matter what the consequences are for the postmen or the public. Sunday deliveries have already been modernised (ie. cut), post office closures have been accelerated and hours have increased. The Hooper Report, published in December 2008, recommends further closures and tens of thousands more job cuts. Royal Mail clearly wish to slash these jobs and replace them with low-paid temporary non-unionised workers in order to squeeze out maximum profitability.

Maybe there just isn't enough demand for post nowadays to make it profitable... But hold on, Royal Mail made £321m in profit last year and that is with the government and the EU allowing competitors to grab the most profitable delivery routes. More fundamentally, if mail delivery is not profitable then why are private companies busting a gut to get access the UK mail delivery market? Predictably, Adam Crozier and his mates certainly rewarded themselves for this year's increased profitability. Crozier got a salary of £633,000 last year and a bonus of £453,000. Mark Higson got a salary of £428,000 and a bonus of £231,000. What did the workforce get? A pay freeze or, in other words, an effective pay cut. No wonder they are angry.

But even if this is besides the point. The Royal Mail is NOT a business, it is a public service that delivers mail to all regions, regardless of whether or not serving remote rural areas or islands is conducive to making a profit . Profitability is not its primary objective although it clearly is profitable anyway. For these reasons there is no need to continue with a massive programme of job cuts aimed at mutilating the service totally. The government have attempted to roll back this vital public service and just last year the CWU defeated attempts by Peter Mandelson to part-privatise it. This is why Mandelson and the so-called Labour government have sided with management over the strike. They, in keeping with their neoliberal policies, wish to destroy the universal mail service and usher in an age of privatised mail delivery. Indeed, as effective owners of Royal Mail there is no way the management could be acting the way they are without the government's full support.

We must all stand in solidarity with the postal workers and support their attempts to stand up for the essence of what the Royal Mail means as a universal public service. Of equal importance is the fact that they are resisting becoming the latest group in society to be punished under the pretext of the economic crisis. In a few hours I will be on the picket lines and so should anyone who cares for the future of the Royal Mail and the future and security of its thousands of workers. Victory to the postal workers!