CWU to strike again from 15 October

Submitted by martin on 9 October, 2007 - 11:36 Author: Martin Thomas

The CWU has announced further 24 hour postal workers' strikes from Monday 15 October. It will be rolling action, mail centres on Monday/Tuesday, delivery offices on Tuesday/Wednesday, and other sections on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Although the latest official CWU announcement sets action only for the week beginning 15 October, earlier union declarations have projected a continuation of that sort of rolling action until the dispute is settled.

The details for the week beginning 15 October are:

* Mail centres and airports - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after 18.00 Monday 15th October 2007 and before 18.00 Tuesday 16th October 2007.
* Deliveries and separate collection hubs - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after 03.00 Tuesday 16th October 2007 and before 03.00 Wednesday 17th October 2007.
* Network (drivers) - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after 12 noon Wednesday 17th October 2007 and before 12 noon Thursday 18th October 2007.
* MDECs (mechanised data entry centres) - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after 12 noon Thursday 18th October 2007 and before 12 noon Friday 19th October 2007.
* International/Heathrow World Distribution Centre - duties, scheduled attendance and overtime commencing at or after 14.00 Thursday 18th October 2007 and before 14.00 Friday 19th October 2007.

CWU held a well-attended rally on Monday 8 October at Central Hall, Westminster.

Solid strikes started at 12 noon on Thursday 4 October, running to 12 noon on Saturday 6th, and again from 3am on Monday 8th to 3am Wednesday 10th. For a few short reports from the picket lines, see "comment" below.

The workers are fighting for a pay rise to keep up with inflation - which is running way above Gordon Brown's 2% guideline - and against Royal Mail's plans to chop pensions, slash jobs, and worsen working conditions. On 5 October, Royal Mail bosses confirmed that they will close their final-salary pension scheme even to existing members. Scandalously, the Unite union, which represents managerial grades, has gone along with this.

The Royal Mail bosses are certainly up for a fight. Trouble is, the CWU leaders seem much less certain.

First they suspended action for talks with the Royal Mail bosses. When the talks predictably yielded little, the CWU took nearly a month to put action back on. (The word was that the CWU Postal Exec was working on "counter-proposals" to Royal Mail's plans, but it has published nothing about those "counter-proposals").

Even after the strike started, the CWU leaders were hinting it might be called off before the end of the four days. "Talks continue between Royal Mail and the union, however CWU has made it clear that the strikes will not be called off until an agreement is reached" (CWU statement, 4 October).

When will the CWU leaders learn the lesson? This sort of on-off, maybe-we-will-maybe-we-won't, we-don't-really-want-to-cause-trouble, give-us-some-crumbs-and-we'll-think-again approach is not the best way to fight bosses who are on a determined offensive.

Comments

Submitted by martin on Sun, 07/10/2007 - 12:23

Nine Elms, SW London - 12 on back on main picket line, 3 at front - a bit down on last time (also seemed more white and male too, but that may not be significant). They said the managers had been bringing in more agency workers, but seemed fatalistic about doing anything about it.
The strike itself was still pretty solid - about 15
people in an office of 1,200 working. Significantly, people were in general much more pissed off with the union leadership: there were comments along the lines of "Billy Hayes wants to be an MP" (though, unjustly, Dave Ward still seems to have a bit of cred). People hadn't heard about what happened at LP conference but were angry when they heard; also quite interested in the RMT slate idea.
A general awareness that Royal Mail are fighting for keeps, that something more is needed, and that the CWU leadership won't do it easily. But not much idea about what to do instead. Still very friendly to us in terms of taking leaflets, buying papers etc.

***
New Cross, SE London - 10 on picket line. Should only have been 8 as they had drawn up a rota. There were worries about covering the other days (certainly most of the hardcore seemed to be there today).They weren't organising a picket line for Saturday. Only the managers were working. All the pickets took the Unions Fightback bulletin. The mood was serious, a lot of talk about how much this was costing them. Generally they seemed less concerned about the wage rise and more concerned about 'flexibility' and pensions. A lot of concern about how little information they are getting. They think a deal has been done on pensions but they heard about this on ITV News. One of them thought they'd be back to work on Monday but the others didn't seem so sure.

***
Dereham, Norfolk - still very solid, though aware that the real damage to RM is being done at mail centres and they are 'nuisance value', as one of them put it. Small number of people (5 or 6 I think) were scabbing, as before.
CWU Norwich rep reported that Norwich was solid as was most of the rest of the county bar parts of North Norfolk. This was seen as a strong turnout, and important to keep pressure on RM and as a signal to their own leadership. Some discussion about impact an election-call would have.
Local LP worthy had given nod and wink re election and that Brown would wade in to 'solve the dispute'. Posties wondered whose side Brown would take...
Main grievances are about the flexible working and proposal for annualised hours. I was told that a union rally scheduled to take place in Norwich tomorrow morning had been called off after workers said they would be picketting.
Beyond staying solid there doesn't seem to be any idea of what else to do, or how to ensure union doesn't cave in. There is recognition and understanding of the make-or-break nature of the dispute. Everyone took the bulletin.

***
Rathbone Place, London W1 - about ten on the picket. A couple leafleting the public; a lot of support from people going by with only a few of people being twats, and that in the form of arrogant interrogation rather than outright hostility.
Only managed to strike up a few conversations. There's low-level stoicism but very little fire there on any of the issues to do with the leadership calling off the strike or the LP conference. There was considerably less bravado about winning the dispute and little real feel that this is going to go on for much longer.
The pension and flexible working were the issues that stood out. There's some passive will to disaffiliate from the LP but little hint that they'll hold their leadership to account or take the dispute into their own hands to win industrially/politically or escalate it.

***
Paddington, London W1. Similar to Rathbone Place. There were two young spanish posties, a man and a woman - and a anarchist type postie on the picket line who I spoke to for a while. There'a a lot of disciplinary action used at Paddington to get rid of workers as a way of avoiding voluntary redunancies. They say it's not as bad as in other places, citing somewhere in SW London where they say there are as many 'managers' as workers!
Everyone takes a bulletin. As with the last set of strikes there are a few at Paddington who read it in its entirety straight away, don't volunteer their thoughts to me, but seem appreciative of the bulletin. I think there's just a feeling of despondency.

***
Glasgow
Joe Wright, CWU Glasgow Area Processing Rep at
Springburn Mail Centre: "After this and the next 48-hour strike there will be a rolling programme of strike action. One day processing, one day deliveries, one day mail centres, one day airports, one day networks (the heavy goods vehicles), and one day the Manual Data Entry Centres. And then it starts all over again, without a break.
The aim is to cause maximum disruption with minimum
loss of pay, and to confuse management. When we kicked off that kind of rolling action in late June and early July some of our own people were confused and we had to re-educate members.
We had to tell people to let mail go in because it was not going to go anywhere. We needed to maintain
discipline. We had the system totally gridlocked.
Royal Mail had so much mail that they could not deal
with that they had to hire containers to store it in.
When the action was called off in earlier in the year there were some concerns. But here, as always, we're 99% solid for the new strike action. Only a handful of people, apart from the managers, have gone in to work.
Pensions is a big issue, and forcing people to work until they're 65. That's going to affect a lot more people than just those who are out on strike now.

Tam McGilp, CWU Glasgow Sub-Area Delivery Rep at Baird Street: "What's the main issues in this dispute? It's a combination of everything. In here, for example, flexibility is a big issue and the way management treats its blue-eyed boys. But the key issue is pensions. Members stand to lose £50,000 or £60,000.
It's ironic that managers, who stand to lose themselves, are trying to sell us a deal you wouldn't sell to your grannie on her deathbed.
We wouldn't have this problem with pensions if Royal Mail had not taken a seventeen-year holiday from paying pension contributions. We wouldn‚t have this problem if Royal Mail had paid in what members have been paying in. But now they want to scrap the final pension scheme for all employees. Offering us some phantom shares in exchange does not mean anything.
Royal Mail is out to destroy the union completely. They're not looking for a compromise settlement. It's obvious we need to stand and fight now, or none of us will have a job to worry about any more. I've been saying this consistently at meetings all over Glasgow.
We're prepared to discuss everything. But we're not prepared to accept everything. And when the programme of rolling strike action begins, then there'll be unofficial action again, just like there was here last time, when managers brought in mail for sorting and we all just walked out.

Submitted by Jason on Tue, 09/10/2007 - 21:31

I think is the key; this is obviously going to be a bitter fight with management and government behind them giving no quarter.

The post workers do have the power to win but only I think if the ordinary workers show th elkind of impressive organisation and resolve they've shown before and watch their leaders.

Are there any moves towards a network of militants in the post who can discuss how to take the action further, works to rule in the meantime?

Finally, all trade unionists should rally to the side of the post workers- they are fighting for us. One out, all out. Support the post workers!

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