From Stratford no.1 branch newsletter

I’m grateful for this opportunity to get the story of CWU members’ dispute with Royal Mail out to the wider trade union movement.

The CWU wants to bring members’ pay in line with the UK average. Our negotiating team approached the employer in January to allow time to reach agreement and have any increase put into wages by 1st April. CWU’s negotiators led by Dave Ward (Deputy General Secretary Postal) tried to reach a settlement on pay. But Royal Mail stated that they believed we were paid between 21% and 28% more than our competitors and that there was no money for a pay increase.

After many fraught meetings, Royal Mail came back with a 22-item wish list of things to fund a pay increase, but this increase would be a lump sum of £250-400 in a ‘Closed Offer’. Our negotiators rejected this offer.

Royal Mail increased the lump sum on offer from £250-400 to 400 to 450 to 500 then offered 2.5% on basic pay, overtime, SA, and all allowances or a non-pensionable lump sum of £600 if that we agree to their ‘savings and flexibility plans’ (22 unacceptable strings), efficiency scheme, and more talks on pay and the business’ future.

This they stated was their ‘Full and Final’ offer. Bear in mind when we started to talk the employer told us there was no money available for a pay increase this year, so I find it hard to believe anything they say.

Our negotiators rejected this offer because the proposed 2.5% in real terms amounts to a pay cut. CWU announced our strike ballot.

It became clear that we needed to safeguard the future of the industry. Crozier’s business plan amounted to commercial suicide and required challenging.

We know that Royal Mail is suffering as a result of rivals ‘cherry-picking’ profitable contracts which previously gave Royal Mail the ability to offer the universal price and delivery to every address in the country. However, we don’t believe that the way to beat our rivals is to bring down the terms and conditions of Royal Mail workers.

There is money in the industry. The CWU fought hard to get the government to invest in Royal Mail after many years of taking the profits that were made on the back of the work we all did. Crozier’s plans for our members’ conditions are changes to the way we work that would affect us all whether on delivery, distribution or sorting. Royal Mail want us to be more flexible: to tell us what days of the week we will work if any, how many hours we will work, when and where. We would be the Martini workforce: anytime, any place, anywhere.

In Royal Mail’s world, ‘efficiency’ means job cuts and the same work spread among fewer people. At certain times of the year, overtime is essential to get the mail out, but management want to cut that too. Royal Mail want us to work harder as in their words we are ‘between 21-27% overpaid and 40% underworked’.

The CWU has been trying to get Royal Mail to look at our workable alternative, which is to invest not just in the machines that we need, but in the people who will run those machines: our members.

Royal Mail are refusing to negotiate with the CWU. Crozier is on record saying “this is going to be like the miners’ dispute - long and bloody”. We want to reach an agreement that benefits all:

• to protect pensions for current members and new entrants
• an above-inflation pay increase, without strings.
• rational talks about securing the future for Royal Mail as a viable public service.
• a long-term agreement to cover efficiency drives.

On the issue of shares, we want real rewards in the form of real money, no phantom elements.

Unlike Royal Mail, we believe we must tackle both Postcomm and the government on the restrictions placed on Royal Mail but not our rivals, and we have launched a political campaign to back up what we are doing industrially.

With so much at stake it’s no wonder there has been such great support for our days of action. Our members have had enough of the propaganda, spin and hypocrisies of the employer and are ready for the struggle to put something of substance into their wages, protect their jobs and preserve a vital public service for customers.

The action has been effective and well supported. But we believe that Leighton is using his media contacts to suppress positive coverage of our dispute. We ask all trade union comrades to raise our struggle with their MP as we are still public sector workers.

What may happen next is some co-ordinated action with other public sector workers, who face similar threats. It could well be the time is right for one big fight.

Roger Charles, Branch Secretary, Mount Pleasant International, Communication Workers Union