Postal leaders duck the fight

Postal workers start another series of actions today which are scheduled to last on and off for two weeks. But there is a real danger that the leaders of the Communication Workers Union are frittering away the energy and determination of their members instead of mounting a serious challenge to Royal Mail’s job cuts and below-inflation pay rise. There are no signs that Billy Hayes, the general secretary and his deputy, Dave Ward, are willing to mobilise the union’s membership in a sustained way. One-off, one-day, regional, sectional strikes have the effect of minimising the impact on the mail service, which then serves to weaken the morale of the membership. The Royal Mail employers sense this and have decided to introduce the very “modernisation” plans the strike was aimed at stopping without reference or agreement with the CWU in a week’s time. This, says the union, will involve significant changes, including later delivery start times and permanent reductions in customer services. But the CWU leaders’ response was hardly impressive. “The imposition represents an unnecessary attack on postal workers’ jobs, pay and conditions,” a statement said. They may be “unnecessary” but the unilateral changes in working conditions are happening.

If the CWU leaders were really intent on opposing the massive job cuts that are coming up the line, they would have prepared the membership for all-out, indefinite action and sought the support of other trade unionists like London firefighters facing similar attacks. Instead, Ward pleaded yesterday with the Royal Mail to pull back, saying: “Despite Royal Mail’s stated position and with the prospect of imposed change, the union has made a fresh offer for a period of calm. We have made yet another offer to Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier [chairman and chief executive Royal Mail] to call off the next planned strikes. All Royal Mail have to do is take a step back and engage in meaningful negotiations.” The employers– with the support of government - have made their position clear: In a period of global competition, the Royal Mail has to cut costs and “modernise” in order secure a position in an open market. In other words, despite still being state owned, the Royal Mail is behaving like any other major corporation when it comes to costs and revenue.

The CWU leaders don’t want to face this reality because of their close, even cosy, connections with the wretched New Labour government, together with their inability to offer a perspective for winning the dispute. CWU members have to call their leaders to account before it is too late and before some half-baked deal is forced down their throats. The union has to answer the challenge of global capitalist competition with an alternative strategy, which stresses the importance of a not-for-profit public service and acknowledges that the business-friendly New Labour government is part of the problem not a solution. All-out, indefinite action could be linked to a campaign to secure wider public support as well as sympathetic action by trade unionists, including other sections of the CWU, whether this is unlawful or not under current anti-union laws. All links with New Labour would be cut as a first step to opening a discussion about alternatives to the political status quo under which all the major parties are committed to corporate-driven globalisation. If Hayes and Ward are not prepared to go down this road, they should step aside for others who are committed to the fight and to the future of the CWU as a viable organisation.

Paul Feldman, AWTW communications editor

Post strike and globalisation

At the heart of the looming confrontation between Royal Mail management and New Labour on one side and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) on the other, is the nature of public services in a period of free-market globalisation. Although still state owned, the Royal Mail is an arms-length company that is actually run as a business concern by extremely overpaid executives. They insist that the business has to "modernise" to face up to more efficient, cheaper competitors in Britain and internationally. The CWU fears that up to 40,000 jobs are at risk. A one-day strike on June 29 is planned over pay and in an attempt to put pressure on Royal Mail to change its plans to make thousands redundant. Following a breakdown in talks yesterday, CWU admitted that management had refused to negotiate a settlement higher than 2.5% or change its plans. Dave Ward, the union's deputy general secretary, accused the Royal Mail of "deliberately misleading" the public by claiming that the union was demanding a 27% pay rise and opposing modernisation. Ward said: "What Royal Mail are doing is not modernisation. The truth is, they are intent on cutting services, cutting jobs and cutting pay. We have tried to reach an agreement but Royal Mail are refusing to negotiate."

If the CWU believes that a series of one-day strikes will force meaningful concessions from Royal Mail or the government they are sorely mistaken. Trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling condemned the planned strike, saying it would be "extremely damaging" for the Royal Mail and its customers. The stoppage will take place just two days after Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister, and he is in total support of competition and "open markets" and will not yield to the CWU. The government is already shutting down thousands of post offices claiming that they are losing money, and ignoring their function as a vital public service. Ministers agree with Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier when he says: "We are losing business because we have failed to change and modernise - and as a result, our costs and therefore our prices are higher than those that rivals are charging in the intensely competitive business mail market, which makes up 90% of all postings." What’s at stake, therefore, is control of the Royal Mail. So long as it remains a profit-centred business competing with capitalist rivals, jobs will go and services will be cut. The CWU is therefore engaging in a political strike against a government which champions globalisation and which is standing behind bosses like Crozier, who is understood to have received a bonus of up to £370,000, taking his total package to more than £1 million. Isolated one-day strikes are inadequate and a poor response to a massive 77% majority for strike action. To widen support for their action, CWU leaders have to bring these issues out and put forward alternative, democratic, not-for-profit ways of running the Royal Mail. The CWU has to involve the rail unions and others in mounting a full-scale challenge to the government if it is to succeed.

Paul Feldman, communications editor