Postal Strikes postponed til New Year. Your mission, should you choose to accept it…
The BBC is reporting that the postal strikes have been called off until the New Year. It is my opinion that the CWU have made a tactical blunder here, surrendering the very great advantage which the increased workload of Christmas delivered. The increased workload reduced the efficacy of the scabs that Royal Mail management had employed.
I’m also less than impressed by the role of the TUC, which has been seen to pressure the CWU into backing down. The TUC should be voicing full throated support of its member trades unions, not trying to act as some sort of arbiter. It’s not the bloody arbiters’ congress.
Nevertheless, there are now things we can do to help prepare for the next wave of strikes, in the New Year. We have a breathing space to go and meet with the local Communication Workers’ Union officials and offer them our support. Forming a local support group for the strike could shore up morale, in what must be a difficult time for workers who mostly want to do their jobs.
It offers several other benefits as well. Firstly, it creates a relationship between workers and the left-leaning people who wish to be part of the support group. Secondly, it creates a broad group of people who can help raise money for strike funds, or for the printing and dissemination of leaflets defending the strike. Thirdly, it gets activists used to supporting workers on strike in general.
This last is particularly important because the Royal Mail workers are merely the first for the chop. This is capitalist retrenchment at its finest, and as we know very well from previous instances, should workers not win, then the government (which is standing right behind RM management on the issue) moves on to its next target. So this is valuable experience, and if played right can build the confidence for other, grander measures – like setting up a district trades council, for example.
So, your mission – you, personally, every single reader – is to go and chat to the local CWU members, maybe get a number for the shop steward or convenor. Find out if they think you could help out, if a support group would be a good idea. Then get a few friends and political allies to take part in setting up the support group. Let this website know and we’ll publish your attempt. Get out the news on Twitter and Facebook.
From there, you’re good for organising activities, raising a bit of money for the CWU branch if they have a strike fund and so on. When the new year comes, and Royal Mail tries to break the strike, and the government and media pile on every pressure and epithet they can think of, we’ll have the network and resources to resist them.
Any bets Mandy has had a shell like in the TUC ears about letting the xmas post go through, and a few of the TUC will be getting a nice bonus for Christmas, say a seat on some silly committee.
It’s entirely possible Robert. But here, I’ll be expecting your story of what you were doing to support the postal workers, to go up as part of a series from around the UK!
The CWU are looking after their member’s interests. Their members have families and Christmas expenses to worry about. They also have deeper relationships with their delivery customers (i.e all of us) than most other workers in society because they visit them every day of the year. Their members can’t afford to go into Christmas losing pay in their pay, they need their Xmas overtime and allowances and the tips they get. The CWU have used the threat to the Christmas Post to the level they can go before it does real and lasting damage to their members and they have got a freeze on the issues that concern them most. If they caried on much longer they wouldn’t be hitting RM where it really hurts (with the big business customers) because most of them, except those in home shopping sector, wind down their postal activity during December. If the CWU don’t get what they want from the negotiations over the next month or so they can resume their action in the New Year when their big business customers are looking at year end activity. Hayes, Ward and Co are far more savvy than you are giving them credit for – they know their industry.