BEING able to force the Brown-Mandelson government to ‘shelve’ the bill for the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail proves that the working class is stronger than this bankers’ Labour government.
The issue now for postal workers is that their union must press forward and carry out their annual conference’s emergency resolution for a national ballot for industrial action to stop the closure of Mail Centres, scrap the government-imposed wage freeze, restore the final salary pension and restore the terms and conditions of service that Royal Mail has been destroying in the name of modernisation.
The problem for postal workers is that their leaders have been so taken aback by the union’s victory over Mandelson and Brown that they have now decided not to carry out the agreed national industrial action ballot, in case such an action brings the Brown government down. They prefer to conciliate with Brown and Mandelson and want to save the government, not defeat it.
They greeted their members’ victory over part-privatisation by saying that, ‘The government has not only looked at market forces but has listened to the British public.
‘Privatisation was a deeply unpopular suggestion from day one.
‘We now look forward to resolving issues which remain around pensions, regulation and modernisation.’
The conference resolution stated that July 2 was the deadline for the Royal Mail agreeing to a three-month moratorium in which the CWU would not take part in strike actions and the Royal Mail would cease its attacks on postal workers conditions, so that agreement could be reached on ‘modernisation’ plans.
The Royal Mail and the government have ignored the July 2 deadline, while Peter Mandelson has attacked next week’s strike actions in London and Scotland against the victimisation regime that Royal Mail is seeking to impose on workers.
On industrial relations, General Secretary Hayes said the CWU had offered Royal Mail management a three-month no-strike deal to ‘sit down and negotiate change’ but they seemed ‘unable’ to take this up.
Far from seeking a dialogue and a three-month moratorium, Mandelson yesterday condemned the planned strike action by postal workers over Royal Mail ‘modernisation plans’.
He said: ‘The union nationally agreed a way forward two years ago. But its own branches are standing in the way of progress.’
He added: ‘The need for modernisation in Royal Mail has not gone away. We have heard a lot from both management and the CWU that they are up for change. Now it’s time to deliver it.
‘We are looking for the changes to Royal Mail’s operations and working practices agreed under the 2007 pay and modernisation agreement to be delivered. Endless industrial relations problems and disputes are damaging the company and their ability to compete.’
On the pensions issue, Mandelson said that far from the government making good the Royal Mail pension fund’s £9 billion deficit, after it had taken a number of annual contribution holidays, it was a ‘matter for the company and the pension trustees’, not the government.
Mandelson agreed that the pensions deficit was ‘a huge and growing burden’ on the Royal Mail, but said the government ‘had to be fair to taxpayers’. Of course this rule does not apply to the banks!
The truth of the matter is that over the ‘shelving’ of the part-privatisation bill, the workers won a battle – the war continues.
For this war to be won, the CWU must ballot for national strike action as agreed at its Liverpool conference and form a public sector alliance so that millions of workers come out together.
This force will be able to bring down the Brown government and bring in a workers’ government that will carry out socialist policies and bring in socialism.