This year’s Conference held in Liverpool in June debated vital issues facing postal and telecommunications workers in this country.
Delegates from Coventry and the Welsh Valleys moved a resolution calling for an end to funding the Labour Party and a campaign for the creation of a new workers’ party. The proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by Conference, which recognised that ‘now was not the time for a split’.
Understandably though there is bad blood between the members and the Labour government. New Labour is determined to impose real wage cuts on public sector workers, and there was a bitterly fought battle over a 2½% deal last year.
Hooper Review
The future of the PO is up in the air. Submissions to the Hooper Review by Postcom and Royal seem to be trying to privatise the Post Office by stealth (see also article on page 4). The Union are calling for the maintenance of the PO network, the preservation of the final salary pension scheme, and the continuance of Royal Mail in public ownership. On this issue Conference overwhelmingly set a deadline of March 2009 to ensure the ‘modernisation’ of the PO wasn’t all at the expense of the jobs and living standards of members. If the Union doesn’t see satisfaction by this time then they will proceed to a ballot of the membership on LP funding. The resolution passed recognised that the present Labour government is "failing to adequately represent the interests of working people" but at present there is "no credible alternative."
The leadership was looking for a joint campaign with managers in UNITE (Their union, the CMA, was absorbed into MSF, then Amicus, now UNITE.). The proposal was rejected. Rank and file postal workers have some nasty recollections of these people’s behaviour during last year’s dispute. They don’t want to have anything to do with any union these people are part of! Secondly the proposal was seen as the sticky slope to amalgamation.
Pensions
The hidden iceberg between the workers and management is the pension issue. Management say the pension is in deficit. They want to tear up the promises that were made to longstanding workers in the industry in the past. Rather than keeping the deal for existing workers and setting an inferior pension for new entrants (the two-tier system favoured by management in other industries), they are out to clobber everyone at the same time. The members aren’t having it. The pensions issue will continue to be a gritty issue until it is resolved – one way or another
