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Members of the CWU postal workers’ union demonstrating in the recent one-day strike
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We’re striking to save your postal services
Jim Kirwan, branch secretary of the CWU, explains the reasons behind this Friday’s withdrawal of labour by postal workers
POSTAL workers throughout the whole of the UK are set to stage a second 24 hour strike on Friday July 13.
The first strike was supported by 98 per cent of postal workers in London. The dispute centres on a 2.5 per cent pay offer (inflation currently 4.8 per cent) and Royal Mail’s business plan.
Royal Mail managers (Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier) claim the post workers’ union, CWU, is asking for a 27 per cent rise and is opposing modernisation.
The fact is the 27 per cent figure quoted by them is their own calculation of how far behind the national average wage postal workers’ pay has fallen.
Of course, the national average wage is a goal the CWU are looking to achieve for its members. However, that goal is an aspiration over five years and not a one-off pay claim.
On the issue of modernisation, the union has always faced up to change, as has been proven recently with the move to a single delivery.
However, what the union is opposed to is the decimation of the postal services and the terms and conditions of its members that Royal Mail’s business plan will inevitably bring about.
Locally in Camden, Kentish Town and Hampstead, postal services are set to be devastated by the proposals which are at the heart of this dispute.
Cuts to night sorting, cancelling and cutting collections, shorter contracts for postal staff all add up to job losses and a deterioration in service to the public and small businesses.
Plans are being drawn up by Post Office management to begin later deliveries, which will bring misery and chaos to small businesses reliant on the post for services.
Cutting and cancelling collections from pillar boxes will mean that mail will be trapped and delayed for days and threaten the next day delivery service.
In addition to all of this are the plans to close high street post offices, counters and neighbourhood sub-post offices.
The post office is the heart of all communities, both urban and rural. In some cases, especially for the elderly and disabled, visiting the post office is the only human contact they have in a day.
For some it will make life very difficult indeed, especially if they will be forced to travel any distance in order to use the post office.
While franchising gives the Post Office a presence, in reality what it means is longer and larger queues and very poor quality of service.
Relegating post offices to the back of WH Smith and behind the baked beans counter in Co-op stores makes accessing postal services for the most needy very difficult indeed.
So the stakes are high in this dispute.
They are high for Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier, who have put their business reputations on the line (a black mark on their CVs could cost them future lucrative jobs), but even higher for the postal workers and for the general public who could see the destruction of the British Post Office and all the services that it used to provide.
Will the strike achieve anything?
Well, it may be said that striking is not a guarantee of success.
But what is certain is that giving in is a guarantee of failure.
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