THIS WEEK hundreds of London delivery offices, and a number of mail centres and other offices and hubs have been taking strike action, after each office and place of work balloted for strike action in opposition to the attacks that are being made on them by both the Royal Mail management and the government.
The militancy of the postal workers has developed by leaps and bounds in recent weeks.
The reason for this is the fact that the postal workers and their allies were strong enough to force the Brown-Mandelson government to shelve their plan to part privatise the Royal Mail and dump it until after the next general election.
This was a great victory for the postal workers.
The reaction of the Royal Mail and the government to this defeat also provided the basis for a further rise in militancy.
The CWU leaders thought that the government and Royal Mail would conciliate after the defeat and offered first, a three-month truce, and then a two-week truce in which all strikes would be cancelled, provided Royal Mail halted its attacks and sat down and discussed the issues with the union, with a view to reaching an agreement.
Royal Mail dismissed the union approach with supreme arrogance, and the Royal Mail-government attack on the CWU was increased considerably, with the management and Mandelson making it plain that they intended to push through their plans, regardless of the union and its members’ view.
This stance shocked the CWU leadership, while the resolve of the membership stiffened considerably, especially when Royal Mail sought to get a judge to declare the London strike actions illegal.
The members declared that they would strike regardless of the judiciary, and that since Mandelson and Crozier had declared war, the issue was winning that war, and nothing else.
Members then demanded national strike action, and that last month’s Bournemouth conference decision for a ballot on national strike action be carried out.
The leadership responded by sponsoring hundreds of strike ballots to try to avoid a national strike.
These strike actions are now taking place. The membership has carried out the actions 100 per cent, but is convinced that all the separate strikes are no substitute for national action.
The membership wants national strike action. It is demanding that Tuesday’s Postal National Executive calls a national strike ballot, and immediately sets up a public sector alliance with all of the public sector unions.
Members believe that a public sector alliance will win the support of all of the other trade unions, and will prove to be stronger than the government and the employers, and with strong leadership will defeat both.
The CWU leaders are now being driven forward, very much against their will, by the intransigence of the employer and the government, and by the demands of their membership to call a national strike.
This must be initiated next Tuesday at the Postal Executive, and a public sector alliance must be formed to take action to win the war that the bosses and the government have initiated.
The slogan must be an injury to one is an injury to all, and that the destruction of the Royal Mail, if it is allowed, will be the prelude to the destruction of the National Health Service and the Welfare State, returning the working class to the days of the ‘hungry 30s’.
The message must be that the whole public sector must come out with the postal workers.
The CWU and other union leaders who have no stomach for this battle must resign now, and make way for leaders who will do everything that is necessary to win the struggle and defeat the bosses and the government.
