Red Postie

Remember back to early November 2009? We took two successful national strike days after a big yes vote, the Postal Exec pulled the strike for talks, the Interim Agreement they assured us had strict oversight rules and tight deadlines aiming for a deal by Xmas….

Here we are in mid-February. Deadline after deadline has been broken while the workers have been told nothing. Letters from Roger Poole the ACAS appointed Chair informed us that the talks were continuing while we got nothing from HQ. The PEC disappeared.

The Letters to Branches (LTBs) began to have an odd deja vu feeling to them as the same words “progress… differences… new deadline” kept repeating:

“The interim agreement commits both parties to making significant progress by early December. At a meeting today to review overall progress the PEC has identified the union’s strategic priorities to meet the significant progress criteria.” (18 Nov Dave Ward)

“Progress is being made and agreements are being reached on some issues, or are close to agreement; some topics still have a way to go.” (14 Dec R Poole)

“We have made good progress and many issues are agreed in principle, although there are some important issues still to be agreed. ..so we have allowed ourselves a short extension of the talks …to conclude an agreement by 22 January.” (R Poole, Dec 23)

“It has been agreed to extend talks into next week on the basis of progress made and the recognition of the crucial importance this set of negotiations will have on the future of Royal Mail.” (R Poole, 22 Jan)

“The current position is that whilst there are a few of major issues to finalise, we have made real progress and we want to conclude an agreement very soon and communicate in more detail.” (5 Feb, Dave Ward)

At last, a word from Dave Ward our Deputy General Secretary Postal (remember him?) pops up like a postcard from a long lost relative that’s just been found stuck under a frame. They didn’t even bother to send it out to all the members or even the reps, just an email to the branches to distribute! What have they run out of paper in Wimbledon?

The latest on the sorry saga:

“Talks with Royal Mail were adjourned on Tuesday 9th February…The union is currently awaiting what Royal Mail have described as their final offer on some elements of the package under negotiation. The next meeting under the independent process will take place on Friday 12th February.” (11 Feb, Dave Ward)

The general theme has been “making progress, differences in major areas remain”. Have they really made any progress at all? The only leak we did get from PEC member Pete Keenlyside’s monthly letter wasn’t good, Royal Mail wouldn’t even accept a net 35 hour week (where hours are cut mostly by breaks going unpaid). Other reports are that they are digging in on Saturdays as a normal work day, finishing as late as 4 pm.

That kind of deal is one we can do without! Activists need to get ready to get their branches to reject any deal that steals our weekend after we won it only a few years back. No to closures and a worse public service, for the shorter working week with no loss of pay!

Tags: 35 hour work week, Dave Ward, Interim Agreement, National Strike, Saturday working, Uncategorized by admin
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“This is a national agreement they’re breaking, it’s a national union, therefore it requires national action.”

London division officials are demanding the PEC restore the national strike, under pressure from their own members. Finally! It will surprise nobody that London Royal Mail managers have refused to budge on cuts or dismantled scab mail centres.

London postal activists, reps and branches should demand that the calls to lobby the PEC are put into effect by calling a demonstration at the PEC to show national leaders a little bit of the anger – and determination to fight – that exists among posties in London and further afield.

Branches all around the country, especially the 500+ that balloted before the national action began, should send in emergency resolutions to back up London and make sure that we stay united. Royal Mail will try to say, “this is a London thing, the militants are trying to sabotage the agreement”.

Nothing could be further from the truth, all the reports from Bristol, Glasgow and elsewhere show that Royal Mail is not retracting cuts or dragging its feet. The lack of progress after 3 weeks has even leaked out into the press, with one source close to the secret national talks has said “So far, it’s been a case of talks about talks.”

The London call for restarting the national strike has come late but is a welcome move that the rank and file need to push forward. If the PEC does not heed the call, London workers should vote with their feet and walkout.

A wasted month – let’s recover lost ground

The same London officials were quick to line up behind Dave Ward and the PEC to sell the Interim Agreement (IA) three weeks ago. They have argued that the deal isn’t a “sell out”, the local and national ballots are still live, and Xmas strikes could still hit the Royal Mail if it would not seriously negotiate its 2009 local cuts and 2010 modernisation plans. Well if proof was needed, now it’s here!

The truth is this is spin. The London CWU leaders by backing Dave Ward’s strategy have wasted a precious month. The IA has stopped the national strike’s momentum, and undermined the magnificent action of London postal workers who have led the CWU with 18 to 23 days of unpaid strike action. While many London officials have defended the deal, the term sell-out is unavoidable:

1. Royal Mail just wants to play for time

If this agreement came at any other time it would still be wrong because it has allowed the backlog to be cleared in many parts of the country. However this is not just any old six week period. Dropping the strikes at Christmas time, when we are strongest, is downright destructive. Even if the PEC calls a strike this Tuesday, the earliest we will be out is 1 December – four weeks wasted.

In other words, as many postal activists argued, Royal Mail has used the process as they always intended: to delay. Momentum has been broken and a demoralising near silence from the leadership, just like in August-September 2007 where negotiations saw nearly 6 weeks without a peep from the tops. A month has been thrown away to “explore” whether Royal Mail could be trusted. Thousands of angry CWU members, especially in London, have been proven right.

2. The agreement has built in divide-and-rule

The IA is meant to divide London from the rest. RM will bend over backwards to avoid confrontation in some areas, so it can point the finger at London as militants obstructing “modernisation”. If strikes are back on this will be a key part in a media offensive against our union. Some postal workers were already nervous about Christmas strikes thanks to the hysterical squeals by journalists, business groups and government ministers. The pressure will be even worse this time.

The question is, after surrendering once, will our national leaders all of a sudden discover their backbone and call the whole union out in such an atmosphere, especially when some regional officials will no doubt argue behind the scenes against being called out again?

The danger is that we will go back to the situation before the national strike, with stronger areas like London going it alone. That is why it is so important that every branch piles on the disagreement and calls on the leadership to immediately revive the national strike.

What about trust?

Mark Palfrey, a leading London official recently interviewed by the Commune before the IA, laid out how Royal Mail bosses were completely untrustworthy: “Basically, RM completely went back on an agreement they had made – there’s no other way of putting it. They’ve broken their own agreement. They’ve broken the terms of the existing national agreement, and they’ve broken large numbers of the local agreements our branches have… They’ve done this by what they call executive action, which means without agreement.” So why have the same London officials wasted the last few weeks backing Ward’s arguments to give Royal Mail a chance to rebuild trust? Royal Mail was never going to change its spots for the IA – it wasn’t required to!

Palfrey also said, “There’s a war going on…We’re in a war with Royal Mail, a war that we must win.” But what general supports a truce without concessions from the enemy, when our side had the upper hand and was giving them a pounding? The fact is Ward and PEC are looking for any way out of a strike they never wanted to call in the first place.

The London Division leaders have defended the Interim Agreement out of loyalty to Ward – just like they did for the 2007 Pay and Modernisation deal. Their support was crucial to allowing the IA to go ahead. But this has put a dent in the national strikes’ momentum and threatens to divide the union – it therefore hits the interests of their London members most of all.

Just as they have led the national action, it is London posties who will have to develop an independent rank and file movement to force the national strike back on track, with or without the leaders, and take back our union from the bureaucrats in order to lead it to victory. London branches against the IA can take the lead and call a national meeting to kick start such an initiative.

Lobby the PEC on Tuesday: restart the national strike!

Tags: 2007 Pay & Modernisation Deal, Dave Ward, London, National Strike, Rank & File Control, Royal Mail, Uncategorized by admin
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The national postal strike has been a brilliant success with a massive turnout across the country. Even the North East Division, which has seen few strikes in the run up to the Oct 22-23 national action is reported to have seen a 98% turnout. Mail centres ground to a halt, the HGVs sat idle in the Distribution hub lots, wet but jubilant posties picketed at delivery office gates. One postal rep summed up the feeling with “Finally we’ve all come out”. Meanwhile a few scabs and managers tried to shift the yorkie jams and nibble away at the mountains of mail. WE WIN THE FIRST ROUND.

Royal Mail “revealed” in its new mouthpiece the BBC that the strikes backlogged only about 30 million letters, 40% of a typical day’s post – which is just unbelievable considering two days of solid strikes, and many delivery offices reporting that managers were struggling to get the special deliveries out! The CWU itself reckons the figure was more like 65 million or a whopping 85% of mail, which is much more realistic. Even Royal Mail’s figure of one out of five workers coming in on Friday seems like an exageration.

Now Royal Mail aims to clear the backlog before the next round of strikes announced for Thurs-Sat 29-31 October. We’ll see. If we work to our time and do the job properly, we can slow them down. It does show the need to escalate the strikes quickly up to an all-out action so that we don’t undermine our own efforts.

There is another reason to go all out and that is to remove Royal Mail’s last excuse for using their scabforce, which the Mail on Sunday undercover journalist revealed was used during strike days:

“The next day the strike had started and we had to cross the picket line. A crowd of post workers waited outside the gates, shouting as people approached…Once inside, there were only 30 temporary workers to tackle the day’s sorting of post. Senior managers were on duty to try to help.”

We need a massive campaign to get every TUC union to support a legal challenge to this, and demand Labour sacks Mandelson and Crozier to end this scab operation. We will have to rely on building our strength – our picketlines, rank and file organisation, and solidarity committees – to prepare to do it ourselves if as is likely the bosses’ courts protect the scabs.

Meantime experts predict that by early November the backlog could be a 300 million Mount Everest of a backlog with ten day delays. As one said on BBC news, “Royal Mail’s plans to cope are doomed to fail.” Even their scabforce can’t shift that amount of mail, Crozier Higson and Co. are screwed and they (and their government backers) know it. Let’s escalate the strike and really force them to their knees.

Tags: National Strike, Scabs, Uncategorized by admin
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