By Pete Keenlyside (CWU Executive, personal capacity)
As a member of the executive of the Communication Workers Union I want to appeal to the broad labour and trade union movement to rally to the postal workers in our dispute with Royal Mail.
People should be under no illusions. This is a very serious dispute indeed. Unattributed quotes have appeared in the newspapers, apparently originating from Royal Mail management, making parallels between postal workers and the miners and car workers. We all know what has happened to the British car industry and the British mining industry. What postal workers are now asking is this: is it Royal Mail management’s intention to destroy the postal service in the same way as the Tories destroyed the mines?
People also have to remember that in order to destroy the mining industry the Tories and the coal board had to first of all take on and try to break the union, the NUM.
The fight the CWU is about to embark upon is not just a battle over wages. We see this as a dispute about the future of the Post Office.
For the CWU this is about keeping a publicly owned, publicly run concern that provides a universal letters service to everyone in the UK. We are opposing management’s business plan which will mean bigger profits for them but a poorer service for the public and worse pay and conditions for postal workers. We want not just a decent pay rise, but a veto on management’s disastrous plans for Royal Mail.
Like other postal workers I’m delighted to hear that some trade union leaders — like Mark Serwotka from the civil service union PCS — are talking about linking up their fight with ours. But as we all know action speaks louder than words. So when we announce the next stage of our campaign we will be looking for other unions to join is in taking action.
We will also be asking people to recognise the political dimension of this dispute. Royal Mail remains a publicly owned company answerable in the last analysis to the Labour government. The CWU has recently decided to have a push on fighting for our policies in the Labour Party. This dispute now makes that push absolutely vital. It would be great to see every Labour MP put on the spot over this dispute. I’m sure that CWU branches would welcome invites to ward and constituency Labour Parties to explain our case and maybe put our point of view over to the MP too.
Support the postal workers!
