We still need a jobs fight

Submitted by Anon on 5 February, 2004 - 4:21

By a postalworker

Despite being hailed as a "watershed" agreement, the "Pay, Major Change and London Weighting" deal recommended by the CWU leadership was accepted in a ballot with a turnout of just 31%. Despite widespread disgust at the proposed 7,500 job cuts and miserly increase in London weighting, most members decided that simply voting in a ballot was an exercise in futility.
What we have seen, however, is a modest revival of the localised disputes that were a familiar feature in offices across the country up to a couple of years ago.

In East London, for instance, a 24-hour strike forced a review of the suspension of two workers who were not even told the charges against them.

Workers are reacting incredulously to local managers' announcements of the scale of job cuts required in each workplace - particularly in the case of the "self-funded" five-day weeks.

We should not read too much into the ballot result. That, after all, was precisely the mistake made by Royal Mail management in their aggressive response to the "No" vote in the national ballot for industrial action over pay.

There is potentially a very large will to resist the job-cutting aspects of the deal. What we need to win is maximum unity across the offices, with clear demands to scrap management's "savings targets" and insist on five-day (or better) working, but "not at our expense!"

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