Postal workers - fighting against job cuts and casualisation

Print
Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
27 July 2009

London's postal workers are taking industrial action again this week - this time for another 24-hr "rolling strike" which started on Saturday in London Delivery Offices. Distribution and Sorting workers will be out this Monday and Tuesday.

For some London workers this will be the 5th strike day in their fight against Royal Mail's on-going job cuts, impossible workloads and its drive to replace 40-hour-a-week, permanent workers with part-time temps. Another 500 offices may soon join in strikes, but so far a national strike has not been organised even if the issues are common to all.

In the meantime the union, the CWU, continues to offer the government a 3 month moratorium on strikes - if they will only stop their implementation of the cuts. Apparently 2 days of talks were scheduled - but so far, even in striking offices, the imposition of the cuts continues, week by week. Of course, the government did shelve the sale of a 30% share in Royal Mail, (temporarily), but it has in no way shelved its attacks on the Royal Mail workforce.

So, yes, there is no question at all that postal workers have every reason to fight. The majority are angry and ready for a battle, despite today's difficult conditions as the 91% strike vote on a 70% turnout in London shows. On the other hand, the union leadership has been dragging its feet, to say the least. Even its day of action on 17th July was not intended as a rallying point for workers nationally. They call Royal Mail's attacks on the workforce/decimation of the service an "attack on the union", explaining that all they want in exchange for their no-strike deal is to be recognised as "equal partners", plus a new national agreement on modernisation, which of course means job cuts, but ones which they've rubber-stamped first!

This is not what most postal workers would consider the objective of their strike. They know full well that RM never keeps to agreements anyway. They saw how the 2007 strike (national, unlike this one), was mishandled by the union leaders. In fact they always achieved more by their unofficial action! Nor do many of the strikers agree with the idea of rolling strikes ("maximum disruption" at "minimum cost" to the strikers, as the leadership explains it). They know that hitting hard by going on all out strike gives the best chance of winning in the least time!

Unfortunately, instead of disrupting Royal Mail, the CWU leadership's strategy is, in effect, disrupting the strike's potential. But this merely means that postal workers will have to find their own leaders from within the ranks of the strikers. That will be the first step towards stopping the barrage of attacks they face!