COMMUNICATION Workers Union (CWU) members in Royal Mail have beaten the anti-union laws for the third time in less than three years delivering a massive 94.5% YES vote for a strike on a return of 63.4%, the union announced yesterday.
The current ballot came about after Royal Mail went to the law courts and got the judiciary to declare their last strike ballot in November ‘unlawful’ despite getting a 97% YES vote for a strike.
Their union leaders in the CWU, however, have not called the strike!
Dave Ward, CWU General Secretary, and Terry Pullinge, CWU Deputy General Secretary (Postal), said: ‘However, the CWU recognises that since we embarked on this ballot just two weeks ago, the growing health crisis is changing the language of priorities for our members and the country.
‘In recognition of the fact that Royal Mail Group is the only service that connects every address in this country via its universal service, something our dispute is seeking to protect, we have made a proposal to the company based on putting the interests of the nation first.
‘We want the public we serve, the government and shareholders to know that we want to set aside our differences with Royal Mail and subject to prioritising the health and safety of our members, we want postal workers to become an additional emergency service in the UK. We believe this could really help the country in these unprecedented times …’
Dave Wiltshire, secretary of the All Trades Unions Alliance, said: ‘The CWU leadership’s attempt to cosy up to the government and the employer will get them exactly nowhere.
‘The CWU membership will be very angry that they defied the industrial courts to hold another ballot and yet they are now not going to take any action!’
