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Reject Royal Mail's Insult |
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Vote No and reinstate the action
Postal workers up and down the country have taken part in a courageous fight against a vicious management intent on destroying jobs and postal worker's conditions, while preparing the industry for privatisation.
We have taken both official and unofficial action over the past few months involving the loss of two weeks wages for all posties, and for some up to 4 weeks which has caused hardship in many cases. Despite this the strikes have remained strong. In fact, as solid as they were on day one of the dispute.
Against this background it’s with anger that postal workers will view the “deal” that the CWU Postal Executive Committee (PEC) has agreed to recommend to our members in a ballot. An agreement which will mean a wage cut in real terms and a real attack on terms and conditions with more to come in the near future.
PAY DEAL
On pay the headline rise of 6.9% over 18 months does not tell the real story. What the management are offering is 5.4% from October 2007 with an extra 1.5% in April 2008 only if local flexibility has been deployed. With a pay rise due since April 2007 the 5.4% is clearly a false figure and equates to a 6 month pay freeze from April to October. Over the whole year it only accounts to a pay rise of around 2.8%, which is well below the rate of inflation. If this was not bad enough the additional pay rise of 1.5% from April next year is only ensured if we implement local flexibility. Royal Mail have included a one off lump sum of £175 from savings already made which is our own money. This all amounts to a wage cut in real terms.
If this was not bad enough this effective wage cut is dependent on accepting a series of unacceptable strings. These include immediate operational changes which will include later start times. The deal recommend by the CWU PEC includes the securing of “grandfather rights” on early shift allowances. But this will be lost by natural wastage over time. So we are supposed to agree to savings for Royal Mail with no real gains for the postal worker and a change in start times that are supposed to take into account individual circumstances “as far as possible”. But this guarantees nothing.
WEEKEND WORKING
Weekend working will cease along with bank holiday work apart from dealing with first class mail. This will be accompanied by the end of Sunday collections from Sunday 21st October representing a major lost of earnings for many members.
FLEXIBILITY
This is clearly a one sided approach by the management which includes “longs and shorts” which means different daily attendances (for example one day working for 7 hours and the next day working 9 hours), and this will be coupled with a variation of hours. Postal workers could be asked to work an extra 30 min per day at short or no notice. This represents a slight concession from the 2 hours that Royal Mail originally wanted. During our dispute we resorted to "doing the job properly", i.e not coming in early and taking our full break and not using our cars. As a result mail has been failing day by day so we proved that we don't have enough hours on a daily basis as it is without more cuts.
They also want to introduce summer staffing where 5 postal workers are expected to do the work of 6 at present.
TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE WORK
What this really means is that we will have to agree to trials to cover anyone on annual leave or on short term sick leave within our duty time. This will put extra work on to the postal worker. We will only receive our next years pay “rise” of 1.5% once this is achieved.
The above are termed as phases 1- 3.
PHASE 4
There will be 3 joint working groups to look at modernisation, consultation and negotiation which will mean future attacks on our terms and conditions.
PENSIONS
Despite the management proposals to decouple the pensions from the pay deal their aim remains the same - to remove the final salary pension scheme and replace it with a career average one.
Despite some more concessions being made they have not gone far enough to match the member’s aspirations that has been seen by postal workers massive support for the recent strikes.
It is vital that the left in the CWU and new union activists organise to build for a massive NO vote in the forthcoming ballot. We need to send a clear message to management and our union leaders that we will not accept these attacks and be walked over. We can and must continue the fight to defend our wages, conditions and pensions through both official and unofficial means. This fight is far from over. Vote No and reinstate the strike action.
Gary Clark
Sub Area Rep Scotland No.2 CWU
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