Got this in an e-mail today from a labor listserve I'm on-- first I've heard of it. Any thoughts from the limeys here?
"We Had Royal Mail, and We Let It Go"... But Not This Time
Sheila Cohen | October 30, 2009
Published on Labor Notes
http://www.labornotes.org/print/node/2539A London newspaper carried a glib explanation of the UK
postal workers' series [1] of strikes [2] that jumped
off this month: "The strike was called after [the union]
backed a walkout over modernisation. They fear
mechanised sorting of post rounds will lead to job
losses."
In fact, "walk sequencing machines" that automatically
sort the work have already been introduced.
So what's really going on?
The postal workers' dispute is complicated, but the
issues driving the recent flurry of work
stoppages--77,000 mail carriers have called another one
for October 31--are familiar to workers everywhere.
* Low pay: Postal workers in Britain earn an average of
#380 a week (about $500) and badly need the
opportunities for overtime and working on rest-days now
being unilaterally withdrawn by management.
* Work intensification: Since the 2007 strike Royal Mail
(postal service) management has imposed "unagreed and
unachievable"workloads, according to a London rep from
the Communication Workers' Union.
* Job loss: Since 2004, following deregulation of the
postal "market," over 60,000 jobs have gone, leaving
those remaining working harder and harder.
* Bullying and intimidation: When workers find they are
unable to meet workloads, says the London rep, "they are
then bullied, intimidated, threatened and in a lot of
cases taken off pay."
In 2007, postal workers took national strike action over
similar issues, which were resolved by an agreement that
cut a significant number of jobs. In return workers were
promised a four-day week without loss of pay. Yet in the
ensuing two years Royal Mail management has simply
broken this agreement, "reverting" workers, particularly
in London, back to five-day weeks without consultation.
It gets worse. Historically, postal workers in Britain
have a fine record of resisting management's wiles. In
1996, activists in London played a key role in beating
back "teamworking," roundly defeating Royal Mail on the
issue, which would have resulted in cutting the numbers
of workers on delivery routes, or "rounds." But now the
kind of work overload disguised within teamworking is
back. Royal Mail calls it "absorption," meaning,
according to a London representative, "You've got to
take on someone else's round at no extra pay--if someone
can't do their round for whatever reason, their work is
just 'absorbed' into yours."
Not only has this massively increased the burdens on
postal workers, it has also led to chaos in the sorting
offices, as mail piles up. Although postal workers'
guerrilla action over the summer--local one-day strikes
in London and other areas--was blamed for the backlog,
in fact absorption was hitting RM harder than any of the
strikes. DEREGULATION
So what's causing Royal Mail's aggression, and what is
the union doing about it?
Deregulation is forcing Royal Mail to struggle with a
far from level playing field, as monsters like TNT,
Europe's second-biggest parcel company, cream off major
contracts and leave Royal Mail with what is poetically
known as the "final mile"--the local delivery which only
RM is in a position to carry out. The only group to
benefit from all this, predictably, is top management,
with Royal Mail arch-boss Adam Crozier pocketing a #3
million bonus last year.
Most scandalous of all is the debacle of the postal
workers' pension. A 13-year pension "holiday," in which
management stopped paying into the pension plan, has led
to a pension fund deficit of #10-15 billion. Many postal
workers now face ending their working lives with no
pension scheme at all. As a workplace rep puts it: "No
one's explained it to us, no one's really questioned why
they did it. All they've said is 'It's happened, that's
it, and now we've got to pay for it."
But that isn't postal workers' only response. Following
on a series of strikes over the summer in London and
other militant areas, postal workers have now voted
three to one for national strike action. Given the
extreme caution of the union leadership, which in 2007
confined the dispute to a two-day stoppage, the hope is
that fury over the behavior of Royal Mail and the
government will project even these leaders into more
decisive action. The workers are certainly ready for it.
In spite of losing over #1,000 in pay during the summer
strikes, "they're adamant that they're going to see it
out to the bitter end," according to a London rep.
The current strike is seen as the only way postal
workers can stave off the voracious agenda of the New
Labour government and Royal Mail. Referring to the 2007
strike, a workplace rep said: "We had Royal Mail, and we
let it go...We've got to win this strike, we've got to get
what we're asking for, or this will never be over."
Links:
(1)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/22/post-national-strike-begins(2)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/30/royal-mail-strike-talks(3)
https://store.labornotes.org/ramparts-of-resistance.html[Sheila Cohen is a member of the National Union of
Journalists in the UK and the author of Ramparts of
Resistance [3], about workers' battles in the U.S. and
the UK over the last 40 years.]
Topic: UK postal strike?