Communication Workers Union members have been telling News Line what they think of the ending of their strike actions in order to have almost a month of secret talks with the Royal Mail and the government.
Rob Bolton, CWU South Central Number One Branch HP section chair told News Line: ‘I am opposed to these secret talks.
‘Our fate is going to be decided behind closed doors.
‘No doubt there are going to be thousands of redundancies and big cuts to our pensions, and we are going to be told afterwards.
‘This is not on.
‘Our strikes were getting stronger, and the thought of a massive demonstration on August 21 had Royal Mail and the government worried, of that I am convinced.
‘We were winning the war. Now there is to be some conspiracy and some rotten deal made behind our backs.
‘I say no. The strike actions must be reinstated. Our national demonstration must go ahead.
‘The whole union must say so. If necessary recall our conference.
‘If Hayes and Ward don’t like it they must resign. We must defend our jobs and our pensions and our wages. Our families are relying on us to do that.’
At Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, central London, on Thursday evening there was anger over the sudden cancelling of strike action in favour of secret talks with Royal Mail bosses until September 4th.
Mount Pleasant CWU Branch Secretary Roger Charles said: ‘Considering today’s joint statement, speaking for the members of my branch, we hope for a positive outcome from these talks.
‘If the outcome is positive then we can forgive the fact that the talks are secret.
‘If after three to four weeks we come back and the membership feel the deal that is done still contains things that are unpalatable, we would not be able to understand why things are being done the way they are being done.
‘And we wouldn’t be able to sell a deal that has no benefits to it.
‘However, because of my knowledge of (CWU leaders) Dave (Ward) and Billy (Hayes), I’m confident they’ll get the best deal possible given the circumstances.’
Because of the tense situation two CWU members did not wish to give their names not trusting in Royal Mail not to victimise them.
One postal worker told News Line: ‘If you are a union member, you should be told what is going on.
‘We pay our union fees, I don’t see why we should have to wait until September.
‘We don’t know what has been agreed, all we’ve been told is the strikes have been suspended.
‘I never heard the talks would carry on in secret, that’s wrong.
‘We’re members of the union, they should get us together, explain what’s going on to us.
‘Some people will probably not come in tonight if they haven’t heard.’
Another CWU member added: ‘I can’t understand it, the idea of going out is to get what you want.
‘It could be a con to get us back to work.
‘Negotiations could break down again and we are back to square one.
‘The whole thing is confusing. They should be telling us what’s going on, not keeping things secret.’
At the West London Mail Centre in Paddington on Thursday evening, CWU member Ricky Allen told News Line: ‘We’ve had no information from anyone as to why the strikes have been called off when they were getting a lot of support.
‘Management’s “modernisation” is good for them but not for us or the service we provide.
‘This office is threatened with closure. The mail which is in central London now will be moved out to Greenford and then sent back again!
‘We were shown a video of a new sorting machine with only two operators, whereas at the moment there are ten.’
‘Our opinions are not taken into consideration at all. To go along with management plans is a sell out.’
• Second news story
SHARES CRASH IN LONDON AND WALL STREET
SHARE prices continued to drop in Britain and the US yesterday.
Prices on the London stock market fell by 197 points lopping £40 billion off share prices in the first 10 minutes of opening leaving the FTSE 100 at 6074.2 points.
By 3.30pm it had rallied to minus 150 points.
In Paris the stock market markets slumped by more than 3.0 per cent in early afternoon trading, after Asian markets had closed down by between 2.0 and 4.0 per cent.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial index slid another 127 points soon after opening at 2.30pm.
On Thursday night it had closed 387 points down.
City analysts said they are fearful the markets will remain volatile in the near future.
As billions more dollars were wiped off share prices in the US and Europe for a second day fears grew of a global credit crunch, and much higher interest rates.
Bourgeois analysts say the crisis could make it harder for banks, firms and consumers to get access to loans and cash and if this persists, it could lead to a worldwide slump.
The slide continued despite efforts by central banks to restore stability.
The European Central Bank injected 61.05 bn euros (£41.65bn; $84.2bn) into the eurozone money markets on Friday.
Japan’s central bank had earlier pumped one trillion yen ($8.5bn; £4.2bn) into the financial system to boost liquidity.
