A Watershed Dispute

Dave Ward writes:

On Thursday next week, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will be balloting over 100,000 postal workers for industrial action in Royal Mail Group.

This will be the first national call to action since Royal Mail was privatised and the biggest dispute to date under the Tories’ draconian new trade union laws. 

More than ever before, postal workers are under relentless pressure to work faster and cheaper. In local offices, resources are stretched to breaking point and delivery rounds just keep getting longer and later. This is a direct result of chaotic management planning and the wholly unrealistic efficiency targets our members are subjected to. 

Yet far from being rewarded for their efforts, their terms and conditions are under attack. From April next year Royal Mail Group will be slashing pensions, leaving many postal workers tens of thousands of pounds worse off in retirement.

Their pay is being frozen while living costs continue to rise. And increasingly Royal Mail is viewing part-time, temporary and insecure employment practices that should have been consigned to the Victorian era, as the model for the future.

It is Royal Mail’s private shareholders and senior managers who are getting rich off the back of this. In three and a half years since privatisation it has paid out almost £800m in dividends. So when it claims it can’t afford to give frontline workers a pay increase or a decent pension in retirement, it can’t expect to be taken seriously.

Royal Mail’s cost-cutting has nothing to do with driving growth or innovation for customers. It is all about creating the cheapest possible operation and maximising shareholder returns.

Our vision for the future of Royal Mail is very different from the stale and short-term thinking of an overpaid board. We have never been afraid of change - but we won’t accept Royal Mail becoming just another low paying parcel courier.

As the dispute unfolds the CWU will be engaging our members and the public like never before. This starts with the biggest trade union meeting in recent history with a live Q&A on the CWU Facebook page at 7pm on Tuesday 12th September.

With the new Tory trade union laws, this is a watershed dispute for everyone who believes we need a new deal for workers. So I urge the public to support their local postal worker and urge CWU members to back the union and vote yes.