Though Cowards Flinch

Early tomorrow morning, I shall be awake and walking down to the local Royal Mail depot to support the postmen and CWU in their dispute. As Dave Osler points out, the issue has gone far beyond the mere question of who is right and who is wrong over the specific issues of modernisation. The question is now whether or not Royal Mail has the unmitigated right to do what it wants with its business.

Bearing in mind that the business survives on the labour extracted from tens of thousands of postal workers up and down the country, few of whom are paid very well – whilst their bosses enjoy bonuses on a level with parts of the City of London – I’m inclined to say that no, they do not. Modernisation must be agreed with the workers, or it simply should not be permitted to happen. It hasn’t been agreed.

In fact, Royal Mail have now said that they will only take the question to arbitration if the CWU give up their planned strike – which has been endorsed overwhelmingly by CWU members in a national ballot. This amounts to asking the union to surrender before negotiations begin, and with the leaked Royal Mail policy document indicating that they want nothing less than union derecognition, it would be criminal to concede it.

Questions over the Royal Mail pension schemes, the continuing profitability of the business and so on are pertinent questions which need answering. The problem is not that trades unionists are too blockheaded, socialists too stubborn and workers too thick to come up with answers – but that any number of answers have been precluded in advance by the government’s attitude to privatisation – and the sale of profitable elements of Royal Mail to private providers, which continue to utilise the socialised distribution network.

These questions have been superceded by the attitude of Royal Mail management, which has become ever more intransigent as they see the government lining up to support them. A defeat for the CWU now would cast a cloud over all previous victories – such as the effort to fight the bullying culture which independent reports identified within Royal Mail. Royal Mail abolished their anti-bullying awareness week in what can only have been an attempt to thumb their noses at CWU and provoke them into a fight.

Now it is a fight, alea iacta est. The working class, and all socialists, labourites and everyone on the Left, should stand behind the posties. Turn up to their picket lines and wish them well. As one young pluck did, bring them homebaked goods. Donate some money to the strike fund. Attend solidarity group meetings. The bottom line is this; the posties are the men and women who deliver a service we all take advantage of.

If, in our own jobs, we know about mismanagement or the government neo-liberal ideology getting in the way of efficiency, if we’re sick of being lectured at and told things which are blatantly untrue, of being bullied and cajoled into overtime we’re not getting paid for, and we ever want the support of other workers, now is our time to shine.

The undersigned writers of Though Cowards Flinch support the thrust of this article and the strike:
Gordon Crawford (Edinburgh)
Paul Cotterill (Bickerstaffe)
Dave Semple (Canterbury)
Dan Ashton (Southampton)