IN an act of downright treachery, the leadership of the postal workers union, CWU, announced last Friday that their ‘opposition’ to privatisation had collapsed at the first threat of legal action by Royal Mail.
In a letter to postal branches, signed by Billy Hayes (general secretary) and Dave Ward (deputy general secretary), they announced that effectively the fight against privatisation along with the fight to boycott competitors’ mail was over – a move that signals their complete and abject capitulation to the employer and the government.
In surrendering before battle was even engaged, these leaders have sold the pass on fighting privatisation and left their members open to huge cuts in jobs, pay and conditions.
None of this should come as a surprise. It was clear at this year’s annual conference of the CWU that the leadership were engaged in a cynical charade of pretending to organise a campaign of resistance and industrial action while making sure that behind all the militant-sounding phrases they were consciously preparing to throw in the towel at the first possible occasion.
At this conference, Hayes and Ward threw their weight behind a resolution calling for a consultative ballot of the members on the issue of a boycott on CWU members having to deliver the mail of companies like TNT.
During the debate on the boycott, Hayes and Ward were careful to link the issue of industrial action over a boycott to the fight against privatisation – a boycott was presented as tantamount to striking against the government’s privatisation of Royal Mail due this autumn.
This apparent call to arms won overwhelming support from the entire membership.
CWU branches carried out a tremendous campaign to get out the vote resulting in a massive turnout in the consultative ballot of 74% with 96% voting against privatisation and 92% supporting a boycott.
The ballot took place on June 19 and ten days later the CWU leaders issued their letter which states:
‘Having considered all the issues surrounding a potential injunction, which could have prevented the Union from taking legal industrial action on a range of issues, the CWU has given Royal Mail an undertaking that we will not call for a boycott of competitors’ mail on reliance of the consultative ballot result.’
Hayes and Ward try to present this as some kind of unexpected development which only arose after the result was in and Royal Mail had run off to the courts to obtain an injunction making any boycott illegal.
This is a complete fairy tale – Royal Mail has a long history of heading straight to the lawyers and courts at the merest whiff of industrial action.
Hayes and Ward are not complete fools. They must have been aware that any boycott of competitors’ mail by their members would be deemed illegal by the courts.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that they deliberately went through this meaningless charade of calling for industrial action in the full knowledge that it would be stopped dead by the law – a law that they had no intention of breaking.
While CWU members were overwhelmingly up for an all-out fight against both the private mail companies and the government and its privatisation plans, the leadership were preparing a treacherous surrender while desperately trying to maintain credibility with the membership by going through this complete charade of organising a fight.
No army can go into battle with leaders like these who prepare for defeat before the battle has even begun.
Every CWU branch should immediately announce their no-confidence in this leadership and demand the immediate recall of the CWU conference to sack the leadership and call action to defeat Royal Mail privatisation.
The only way to stop privatisation and put an end to the parasitic private competitors is to take strike action against the government, and demand a commitment from every union and the TUC, that use of the anti-union laws, will mean the immediate calling of an indefinite general strike.
