AT THE Mail Centre in East London pickets were out in force yesterday along with a marquee and a barbecue.
Jon Ayres, the drivers’ rep for East and North London, told News Line: ‘Royal Mail has employed an American firm that deals only with anti-trade union law and, basically, that company took the union to the High Court, claiming irregularities were existent in the ballot.
‘These are union-busting companies which are ultimately operating at great cost to the taxpayer.
‘Obviously the judgement was on the side of the union and costs were awarded to the union.
‘If the case had been found that there were irregularities and an injunction taken out against the union, we would have still taken our action.
‘Principles are more important than the law, particularly when you are protecting full-time jobs, the public service we supply and the terms and conditions of our members.
‘We feel at this moment in time that privatisation has been placed on to the back-burner.
‘It was our political campaign and our industrial campaign that forced Labour MPs to stand by their manifesto commitment, which was for the Royal Mail to remain 100 per cent publicly owned.
‘If the CWU are unsuccessful in our current dispute, which we don’t believe we will be, then the case will have to be taken to the TUC.
‘They will have to galvanise the membership of every public union to call a general strike.
‘This will be an all-out confrontation with the government.’
‘We’re going to win,’ Greg Charles, London South-West CWU branch secretary told News Line on the picket line at Nine Elms Mail Centre yesterday morning.
He added: ‘Royal Mail’s attitude stinks.
‘Our members feel like they’re treated like second-rate citizens.’
He continued: ‘Our dispute started before Mandelson shelved the privatisation bill.
‘This dispute is about working conditions, terms and conditions.
‘We were successful in defeating their claims and we’ve seen a growing of the strength of feeling over the last three days, with more people coming out on strike than did on the first day of strike action.’
He said that, ‘There’s a national day of action on July 17 that will take many different forms of action, including all-out strikes in London and other places, and we will march through the centre of London.
‘We will demand Royal Mail change their stance on how they’re dealing with the union and the members and for the government to intervene to get hold of Royal Mail management and stop executive action and make them negotiate.
‘One of the demands we’ll be making is that Crozier resigns, and it would be nice if Mandelson went too.’
At Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, north London, CWU assistant branch secretary Lloyd Harris told News Line: ‘We’re here on the streets fighting the changes that Royal Mail are bringing in – the so-called modernisation.
‘For us, this means going back into the dark ages, being intimidated by managers whose interest seems to be not the service but making more profits.
‘They are slashing and burning our terms and conditions.
‘Thousands of jobs are under threat as well as our pensions.
‘Royal Mail have to speak to the union and negotiate properly instead of imposing these changes on us.
‘Hopefully, a national strike will come about, and that is where we will win this’.
