ROYAL MAIL Communication Workers Union (CWU) postal workers were in a determined mood during their latest pay strike yesterday.
At Jubilee Mail Centre in Hounslow, SW Middx Amal CWU Branch Secretary, Sarah Woolaghan told News Line: ‘We are really up for the fight. We are actually, in effect, trying to save Royal Mail.
‘We are fighting for our pay, terms and conditions, but also for the service for the public.
‘The change of the holding name of the company, which they did last week, from Royal Mail Group Ltd to International Distribution Services, says to me that they want to break us up and make us a parcel business, like Amazon, DPD etc.
‘We know the public is completely on our side.
‘We are the same as the nurses, teachers etc, providing a service to the people.
‘There absolutely has to be a general strike to bring down the Tories.’
CWU member Gerry Daly said: ‘I was branch chairman of the local Labour Party but I left the day Starmer got elected. You could see where that was going.
‘I absolutely believe we need a general strike. The TUC have got to show some bottle. Get everybody out.
‘The Tories are there for the taking. We’ve got to organise a general strike to bring them down.
‘We are very solid here and it’s the same nationally.
‘There’s great support from the public, it’s much more pronounced than in previous strikes. The mood seems to be changing in the country.’
CWU Health and Safety Rep Paul Newman said: ‘We are getting really good support from our members, 99.9% are not going in.
‘Around 400 work here now. When I started 17 years ago it was over 1,000.
‘Once they start messing about with our conditions it’s a downward spiral and imposing a 2% pay rise in the current climate is ridiculous.’
Matt Wood, CWU Rep at N16 Stoke Newington, said: ‘Whilst it’s too early to say, it looks like our strike is having some effect because at least it has got them round the table talking to us.
‘Of course, we won’t know at the moment how the negotiations will turn out, but whilst we’re not against working practices changing, at the same time, it should not be forced on us.
‘It’s good to see workers in other industries taking strike action. It improves our morale, for example, Arriva bus strikers in North and East London won a ten per cent pay rise, showing what happens when you fight.
‘Until we get a fair deal, like those bus drivers, our strike will continue.’
On a lively picket at Muswell Hill Post Office, CWU member Eddie told News Line: ‘This is going to be a long dispute because both sides are digging in. It’s going to get bitter because the CEO is determined to push through all these changes without consultation.
‘We need other unions from the public sector, once you get nurses and teachers it will make a difference because they don’t really care about postmen.’
News Line spoke to Phil Jarratt CWU rep Cheltenham. He said: ‘We’ve got 229 employees, at the most only 8 have gone in.’
When asked about the TUC meeting in Brighton he went on to say they should be discussing getting everyone out.
He added: ‘The railway workers nurses etc have got the same issues. It would be different if it was just us but it is everyone – it’s a genuine issue.
‘It makes more sense to come out. It would make more of an impact and they need to go 100% all the way. We need a workers’ government.’
‘We will never agree to levelling down and the asset stripping of Royal Mail’ – says Dave Ward
A LIVELY picket of a hundred striking postal workers at Pensbury Street Hub in South West London was addressed yesterday morning by CWU general secretary Dave Ward.
He told the strikers: ‘We will never agree to the levelling down and asset stripping of Royal Mail.
‘Royal Mail CEO and the chairman signed up to our national agreement and now they have walked away from it.
‘They say they are losing £1m a day yet we made £758m profit last year. If that is the case the whole board should be sacked for mismanagement.
‘We will never agree to the impossible new performance agreement.
‘They want to take on new workers on 20% less pay and hive parcel deliveries to owner drivers.
‘The government should scrutinise their plan. They should get you guys to run the business.
‘We have had 100 per cent solid support and the strike has driven them back round the table.
‘Now we are back in the room we are seeing a different attitude but it is too early to say if we are making progress.
‘We don’t want to be out on strike, we want an agreement and we are going to win this dispute because we are on the right course.
‘I met with Starmer yesterday and told him he needs to get on side with postal workers.’
Ward didn’t say what Starmer’s response to that was!
On the picket line, CWU rep John Elliot told News Line: ‘There has never been more time for change, we absolutely need a general strike.
‘We have to get the Tories out. There are NHS workers and firefighters balloting for strike action.
‘We are fed up with the cost of living crisis. Yet companies are making vast profits.’
CWU striker Pauline Obee said: ‘The Tories want to make sure we have no voice, but striking is the only recourse we’ve got.
‘We have the power, we make the wealth and pay our taxes.
‘We don’t want to go back to the 1970s, I know what it’s like to be poor and I’m not going there again.
‘I’m against the government selling everything off. We mustn’t go down the American route.’
Another CWU picket James Brown said: ‘We are fighting to defend our working conditions, and we are not going to allow them to take them away because we are fighting for the future workers.’