The Tories tried to stop workers striking but the Royal Mail played them at their own game

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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The Trade Union Act 2016, brought in by this Government, tried to make it harder for workers to strike. So Royal Mail workers devised a strategy to make their voices heard

Royal Mail workers have voted to go on strike in a dispute over pay, pensions and conditions. In so doing, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), which represents them, has set the gold standard for all other major unions in the UK.

It is the first nationwide strike ballot since tough new legal requirements for industrial action were introduced by the Conservatives. The Trade Union Act 2016, which came fully into force in March 2017, dictates that lawful strike action now requires a 50 per cent turnout to vote. CWU gained an 89 per cent vote to go ahead on a 74 per cent turnout.

The new thresholds for turnouts and results have made a number of unions fearful of staging industrial action ballots among large groups of workers spread throughout the country. While they were confident of achieving a “yes” vote among those voting, they were not confident of securing the 50 per cent minimum turnout.

Their fears were underpinned by the loss of some big and important ballots early on. London Underground workers, offshore workers and council workers in Scotland all fell foul of either the 50 per cent turnout threshold or the requirement in vital public services that those voting for action equated to 40 per cent of all those entitled to vote. But the successful CWU ballot, which brought together nearly three quarters of its 110,000 Royal Mail members, working in thousands of separate offices, shows that unions need not fear if they approach the ballot in the right way.

How to mobilise

The CWU began the mobilisation to gain a strike mandate well over six months ago. It put together a “Four Pillars of Security” campaign, calling for: decent pensions; a shorter working week; extended legal protections, and a proper pricing policy for the cost of sending mail. The campaign focused on ensuring members’ terms and conditions of employment were not driven down, amid fears they would be in order to help the now-private company retain its market share and boost profitability.

Lesson one is to pick an issue – or set of issues – that really matter to members. Asking members to strike for, say, a little more than a 1 per cent pay rise might not provide much motivation when the cost of striking could wipe away the benefits of such a small rise and their pay has fallen by up to 10 per cent over the last decade (as has been the case in the public sector). Being able to decide what is the right issue to run with can only be gained by doing the necessary groundwork by talking extensively to members to judge their mood.

[PHARRY]

The CWU should donate to the conservatives instead of the Marxist ultra left wing socialists

[walkthewalk]

A well thought out plan by the CWU and to think most on here feel the likes of Dave Ward & Co do very little to earn their crust, well done the CWU