Postal picket at Tredegar Road (East London) - the fight heats up

Workers' Liberty members attended the picket at the Tredegar Road delivery office on Tuesday 29th of September. Over the past few weeks, AWL activists have attended the picket lines on strike days. The CWU branch at the Tredegar Road office is strong, the rep is pro-active, and the picket lines are big, lively and confident. We asked posties for their views on the strike.

One issue that a worker from the nearby mail centre raised was attacks by management calculated to provoke unofficial walkouts. Twenty-one drivers at her mail centre had been 'taken off pay' for some imaginary infringement of the rules. Other workers at the delivery centre had been bullied and taunted by managers, and systematically pushed to do "cross-function" work, i.e. tasks outside their job description. The idea is to enrage the workforce to the point where workers walk out unofficially, which will give management a clear field to start locking workers out, stopping pay, victimising organisers and generally exhausting the strength of the workers. Management are not only on the offensive in London: as we arrived at the picket, we were told that two reps in Bristol were being victimised. So far, workplace reps have been successful in defusing these provocations. A rep told us, "The mood is volatile, people are very angry about this treatment, but I don't think we have a choice but to keep it official at this stage, at least until the national ballot comes back. Otherwise London risks getting isolated. Management want to lock us out". But he pointed out that as the dispute went national, unofficial action would probably become an important tactic.

We spoke to postal workers about the vote by the London region of the CWU to stop funding Labour. One, who had voted 'yes', said that it was high time for the unions and the socialist left to start a new project of working-class political representation. We talked about the idea of a 'new socialist alliance', pointing out that the efforts of Bob Crow and the CPB have been quite secretive and undemocratic and that a more open, mass organisation was needed.

Another worker, who had reluctantly voted against withdrawing funding for Labour, said that he had been swayed by the fact that dozens of Labour MPs had voted against privatisation of the post. He admitted, though, that many of those MPs will have voted that way on the basis of back-room deals or as 'a favour' rather than because of an authentic connection with the organised working class, and told us that in general he had little faith in New Labour to represent the interests of his fellow CWU members.

When the national strike ballot comes back with a yes vote on the 8th of October, postal action will escalate across the country. Postal workers who have been in the union twenty years are telling us that this battle is the most bitter they have yet seen - bigger and tougher than the 2007 strikes. Management have demonstrated that they mean to fight hard to smash the CWU. Socialists and trade unionists should be working now, before the ballot, to set up solidarity committees in their areas, nationwide. Public meetings, street collections, visits to picket lines, practical solidarity from other unions - this basic work is vital and can make the difference between victory and defeat.