RM and CWU have found a grown-up way to conduct relations

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail and CWU have found a grown-up way to conduct relations

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Union will have the right to make representations to the Royal Mail board – plus, there will be monthly chinwags

Struggling to get a decent pay rise? Unhappy about being on a zero-hour contract? Concerned about the size of your pension pot for when you retire? Then join a union and get organising. That's the clear message from the deal struck between the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union.

It's not just that the agreement offers CWU members a 9% increase in pay spread over three years, although an above-inflation package is certainly not to be sniffed at when average earnings growth is running at less than 1% a year. Nor is it simply that the Royal Mail has pledged to avoid compulsory redundancies, outsourcing and the use of zero-hours contracts, a commitment that will remain valid provided the union does not call a national strike.

It is also that the company and the union are trying to forge a grown-up relationship in which the union will have the right to make representations to the Royal Mail board and there will be monthly chinwags between Dave Ward of the CWU and Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive.

Higher pay, better working conditions, a commitment to improve industrial relations, co-operation between workers and management. It sounds positively Germanic, and none the worse for that.