A LEADING CWU (Communication Workers Union) representative in the Midlands yesterday said a national strike was needed to tackle ‘all our difficulties’.
Malcolm Brundrett, CWU Area Delivery Rep, Midland Number 7 Branch, also demanded that the Unite union leadership say where they stand on their manager members in Royal Mail carrying out strike-breaking against CWU members.
He told News Line: ‘We’ve still got a major dispute in the Stoke-on-Trent distribution centre, although they are back to work there at the moment.
‘We’ve also got a dispute in Burslem Delivery Office, where they are trying to impose changes, cuts in services, longer deliveries and a number of job cuts out of the office.
‘There are a number of ballots pending for other delivery offices in a similar situation.
‘But they may be affected by the overall national dispute which is being balloted for next week.
‘They all need to be taken up as part of the national difficulty we are facing.
‘The national ballot is due to commence on the 9th September and we certainly expect the membership nationally to deliver a yes vote for national strike action.
‘I think there is support from the public as well, where people can see what is going on in the postal service and they don’t like it.
‘Royal Mail management call it modernisation, but it’s clear that as far as they are concerned modernisation means slashing jobs and slashing services for the sake of it.
‘Some members of Unite are formerly from the Communication Managers Association, which was not really a trade union but a federation of Royal Mail managers.
‘We’ve asked the Royal Mail managers in Unite for their support on the pensions issue and we have asked for their help in previous years, but it has never been forthcoming.
‘When they were the CMA which wasn’t exactly a trade union, it was widely regarded that their members had no trade union principles and they were always ready to take our work when we were in dispute.
‘I’m sure the leadership of Unite have some very clear views about what their members should and should not be doing, and they should express those views.’
John Denton, London CWU Regional Secretary, told News Line: ‘The Unite leadership should communicate with their members and tell them not to take part in organised strike-breaking.
‘That includes not signing up to work in other areas of the country, sometimes hundreds of miles away to try to break CWU action.
‘The mood in London is fantastic.
‘Our members are very strong and they can see that a lot of the managers are at breaking point, running round like headless chickens trying to get the work done.
‘We are calling for, and expecting, a massive yes vote in next week’s ballot.’
Burslem Delivery Office has been taking official strike today and yesterday, along with many other offices.
Yesterday postal workers were out on strike at Bristol, Dorset, Cambridge, Coventry and Ipswich Mail Centres.
Also out were Maidenhead, Middlesbrough, Slough and Thetford Delivery Offices.