Royal Mail bosses attack – CWU escalates action

• In response to Royal Mail’s vicious ratcheting up of attacks on its workforce, CWU has announced 19 further days of action, following the 30 September – 1 October strike. The action will be taken by all members on 13, 20, and 25 October, and 28 November. Different teams – processing, delivery and network – will strike on the other dates. The action will include Black Friday week and Cyber Monday.

By Socialist Party members in CWU

We have seen a major escalation of the dispute by Royal Mail.

On 22 September, the Royal Mail CEO met with senior Communication Workers Union (CWU) negotiators.

Instead of seeking meaningful negotiations, as the meeting started it became apparent that the boss was only there to serve notice on the CWU of Royal Mail’s intention to withdraw from various national agreements.

With these changes it’s clear that Royal Mail are trying to derecognise the CWU as the union which represents the interests of Royal Mail workers. They aim to move from the CWU representing members in negotiation, to only being consulted on any changes.

Withdrawing from agreements

These changes include major attacks on our terms and conditions. Withdrawing from the legal and binding part of the ‘Agenda for Growth’ will allow them to push ahead with changes without agreement with the CWU.

This could include start times, finishing times, and flexible working, with no set hours on any given day. This will begin on 22 October.

From 21 October they will also introduce trials of new technology without any agreement with the CWU.  

The existing attendance procedure will be replaced, so they can fast-track dismissal cases, including issuing warnings automatically and without the right to representation.

The current industrial relation framework is to be replaced, stripping out two levels of representation, taking out a huge layer of experienced CWU officials who currently support the local levels. This is a blatant attack on union organisation.

They have also served 12 months’ notice that they will withdraw the agreement whereby members’ union subscriptions are taken directly through the pay system.

Serious

These are clearly extremely serious developments. 115,000 CWU members in Royal Mail are on strike on 30 September and 1 October, with the Postal Executive meeting as we go to press.

It is clear an acceleration of strike action is now required.

A call must also be made to the TUC and whole trade union movement to come to the support of the CWU, including financial support.

We need a strike solidarity fund!

• 40,000 workers in BT will strike again in their battle over pay cuts on four days in October: 6, 10, 20 and 24. The action includes BT Group’s 999 emergency call handlers. CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “This dispute is modern Britain in a nutshell. Lives are at risk because a company’s top brass won’t listen to workers”.
• CWU members who are Royal Mail cleaners, maintenance engineers and related admin workers have also voted to strike over pay, with a 93.5% ‘yes’ vote.