[Imc-birmingham] feature proposal: postal strike 2

[dougbrum at tiscali.co.uk]

Excellent article mate, keep it up.
D
>----Original Message----
>From: shiar at riseup.net
>Date: 14/07/2007 0:27 
>To: "Birmingham Imc"<imc-birmingham at lists.indymedia.org>
>Subj: [Imc-birmingham] feature proposal: postal strike 2
>
>Hi,
>
>I'd like to propose another good feature :) about the postal strike. 
Here
>it is.
>
>
>Title: Up the Posties!
>
>Author: IMC Birmingham
>
>Image: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2007/07/375870.jpg (cropped 
for
>better composition)
>
>Abstract:
><p>
>Following failed talks with the Royal Mail management, postal workers
>across the country went on a second 24-hour strike in two weeks, 
starting
>at 7pm on Thursday, June 12th. Pickets were again held at sorting 
offices
>in the evening and many more at delivery offices and depots the 
following
>morning. In Birmingham, three picket lines were formed at each gate 
of the
>main mail centre in Newtown. Solidarity from fellow workers, as well 
as
>from members of the West Midlands branch of the <a
>href="http://www.iww.org.uk">Industrial Workers of the World</a> 
union
>(IWW), was impressive.</p>
><p>
><a href"/en/regions/birmingham/2007/07/375814.html">Report and 
pics</a> |
><a href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/07/375898.html">Cov Wobblies 
support
>local posties</a> | <a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/06/374788.html">First round of 
postal
>workers strike</a>
></p>
>
>Content:
><h3>The struggle continues</h3>
><p>
>Two weeks ago, up to 130,000 postal workers took part in a 24-hour <a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/06/374534.html">strike</a> -the 
first in
>11 years- to stop the Royal Mail's cost-cutting plans, which the
>Communication Workers Union (CWU) <a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/06/374640.html">says</a> would only 
mean
>cuts in members' pay and pensions, job cuts and more post office 
closures.
>The CWU had warned of a fresh round of industrial action in the hope 
of
>restarting meaningful talks with Royal Mail.
><p>
>However, according to the CWU, the Royal Mail management were not 
really
>interested in meaningful talks on Wednesday, June 11th, and merely
>reiterated their previous 'offer' and refused point-blank to 
negotiate. In
>fact, chairman Allan Leighton did not even turn up for the meeting 
and
>simply joined via a telephone link. CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes
>commented: "We are consistently trying to negotiate with Royal Mail 
but,
>to be blunt, they have no interest. They refuse to take the dispute
>seriously – to the extent that Allan Leighton can only spare 45 
minutes
>from his other commitments for a virtual meeting by conference call. 
The
>public will see through his half-hearted approach to stop disruption 
to
>the mails services."</p>
><p>
>The CWU said support for the strike on Thursday-Friday among postal 
worker
>was "huge". A CWU <a
>href="http://www.cwu.org/news.asp?step=3&NID=1755">press release</a> 
said
>"No Royal Mail services operated as mail came to a standstill with 
close
>to total support for the CWU strike across the UK. Postal workers in 
every
>area supported the strike in overwhelming numbers. This support was 
at a
>level of 99% in big cities and all the largest Royal Mail workplaces 
and
>over 90% in all other areas of the country."</p>
><p>
>The union's executives will meet again on Tuesday, 17th July. If 
there
>were no fresh negotiations by then, they are likely to call for more
>strikes. An <a
>href="http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?
EDMID=33754&SESSION=885">Early
>Day Motion</a> tabled by Labour MP for Morecambe & Lunesdale, 
Geraldine
>Smith, with about 60 MPs adding their names to it, called on Royal 
Mail
>"to enter into meaningful negotiations with the Communications 
Workers
>Union to resolve the current postal dispute."</p>
>
><h3>And so do official lies</h3>
><p>
>Once again, the Royal Mail management accused the CWU of "blocking
>modernisation" and "hurting the business and its customers with 
repeated
>strikes," portraying them as the ones causing this dispute. Royal 
Mail
>chairman Allan Leighton said: "Yet again, the union has refused to 
grasp
>or understand the harsh commercial reality of the market in which 
Royal
>Mail now operates and the consequences for all of us if we don't 
modernise
>- and do it quickly. Their decision to call another strike changes 
nothing
>and achieves nothing other than to damage the business and our 
customers
>and drive more of them towards the internet or to rival operators."
>Further, Royal Mail claimed that, "as ever, it is willing to meet the
>union at any time," never mind what had happened the day before.</p>
><p>
>Back in 2006, Royal Mail and the CWU had agreed that they would work
>together to tackle the impact of competition in the mail market, use
>government investment to introduce automation, improve efficiency,
>introduce innovation products and raise the value and status of 
postal
>workers' jobs. Royal Mail, however, ditched the agreement, refused to
>negotiate a pay resettlement and insisted on unilateral imposition of 
its
>cost-cutting business plan with mass job losses and cuts to workers' 
pay
>and pensions. Furthermore, the management has been deliberately 
misleading
>the public by claiming that the CWU want a 27% pay rise. The CWU 
insist
>they have never demanded a 27% pay rise. Royal Mail's offer of 2.5%
>increase in pay is, in reality, a wage cut as it falls below 
inflation
>rates.</p>
><p>
>And just like two weeks ago, Royal Mail claimed that support for the 
CWU
>strike "had slipped and remained extremely patchy." A Royal Mail <a
>href="http://www.news.royalmailgroup.com/news/article.asp?
id=1979&brand=royal_mail">press
>release</a> claimed that the percentage of people coming to work 
ranged
>from 5% to more than 60% around the country. It added that the 
network of
>14,220 Post Offices was "operating as normal." These claims, of 
course,
>were widely picked up by mainstream media without any challenge or
>'reality check'.</p>
>
><h3>Strike profiteers<h3>
><p>
>According to the <a
>href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6896893.stm">BBC</a>, one 
of
>Royal Mail's biggest rivals, DX, had offered to help Royal Mail make 
its
>urgent deliveries over the period of the strike. The company told the 
BBC
>it expected to gain about £10m of business as a result of the strike
>action. DX describes itself as "the leading alternative to Royal Mail 
for
>next day business mail services, delivering over 1 million letters 
and
>packets every working day throughout the UK and Ireland." All this, 
of
>course, was not mentioned by Royal Mail when they <a
>href="http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?
catId=1000002&mediaId=51600692">reassured
>their customers</a> that they had "well-developed contingency plans".
</p>
><p>
>Since the Postal Services Act 2000 was introduced, over 1,000 post 
offices
>around the country have been closed down, paving the way for private
>companies to take over. There are further plans to close some 70 post
>offices in the near future and relocate the services into WH Smith 
stores.
>Since Royal Mail lost its monopoly status on post deliveries at the
>beginning of 2006, 17 private operators have entered the UK mail 
market,
>particularly in the more profitable business post sector. According 
to
>Royal Mail itself, the company has already 'lost' about 40% of its 
bulk
>mail business to private competitors, including recently a £8m 
contract
>with Amazon. Yet, operators such as TNT and DHL only handle the bulk
>transit between major customers and the main sorting offices, which 
is the
>easy bit, while Royal Mail is still expected to make the individual
>deliveries, but without the full amount of the postage.</p>
>
><h3>Be the media!<h3>
><p>
>During filmed interviews for Indymedia, striking postal workers 
mentioned
>that, two weeks ago, some of them had downloaded a <a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/06/374716.html">Birmingham 
Indymedia
>report</a> on the first round of the postal workers action and stuck 
it up
>on CWU notice boards at Birmingham mail centres. Managers then asked 
the
>CWU to take the pictures down, claiming they were "offensive". Upon
>refusing to do that, two managers were sent and ripped them off. Some 
of
>the downloaded pictures subsequently appeared in the CWU newsletter.
</p>
>
><h3>Solidarity</h3>
><p>
>About 8 members of the West Midlands branch of the Industrial Workers 
of
>the World union (IWW) joined the picket lines in Birmingham on 
Thursday
>evening, bringing with them <a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/07/375814.html?c=on#c177174"
>'solidarity
>bags'</a> containing some home-made vegan cakes and fruits as well as
>leaflets about the postal workers' struggle and the IWW. Similarly, a
>couple of local IWW supporters in Coventry went down to the main 
sorting
>office in the city to offer solidarity to the striking posties. They 
also
>joined the picket line the following morning, bringing their food and
>drinks hamper and giving out IWW leaflets [<a
>href="/en/regions/birmingham/2007/07/375898.html">report</a>].</p>
><p>
>An IWW leaflet distributed at picket lines stated "We don't want a 
slice
>of the cake; we want the bakery." With the slogan "An injury to one 
is an
>injury to all", it expressed support for the striking postal workers 
and
>their "justifiable demands." The leaflet also criticised union 
leaders for
>"dithering about" instead of "planning longer and more coordinated 
union
>campaign to maximise the impact on [Gordon] Brown." "The fat cats in 
the
>unions," it added, "usually try to restrain their members, often 
calling
>off strikes or planing them at times to avoid maximum disruption, for
>instance."</p>
>
>
>-- 
>Shiar
>
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>






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