East London Delivery Office (EDO): First there were three, the sun having not yet shown its face, in the
pitch black darkness of the autumn morning it was only the neon of the street
lights that reflected off the red high visibility jackets of the picketing
Royal Mail workers. As the reluctant sun began to appear through the gaps in
the buildings so did the workmates of the original three. They greeted each other
with boisterous humour and comradely appreciation. Before you knew it, they
were twenty men, a small boy and two dogs. Their enthusiasm and determination was
just as warming as the newly born sun and the almost constant flow of tea.
These men were on strike!
The second day of the postal workers national strike was underway.
Despite the media misinformation, or shall we call it the media onslaught
against the strike, describing the postal workers and the CWU as “greedy” and
“inconsiderate at a time of mass unemployment”, the picketers seemed very
cheerful and confident. We were given a brief salute and blow on the horn by
almost all the bus drivers and white van men as they passed along the
Whitechapel road in support. As it approached midmorning the pedestrian flow
brought with it not a few well wishers. One older man stopped and said; “what
you boys are doing is right, but you must stay together and convince others to
join you to win!” they say wisdom comes with age. This showed to me, to an
extent, that the media offensive had not been very potent. One particular article
in the Sun claimed the action of the
postal workers would mean “our boys in Afghanistan would not get their
Christmas presents delivered to them”. When I told one of the picketing workers
about this disgusting attempt to create antipathy towards them, he humorously
replied “the logical solution to that would be to bring our boys home”. It
appears postal workers have more sense than our government.
The action, not just over pay and conditions but also the prospect of
huge job cuts within the framework of the “modernisation” plan, was called
following a series of one day strikes across the country. The less disruptive
one day stoppages were not enough to convince management to start negotiations,
who the workers blame for breaching the 2007 phase four pay and modernisation
agreement.
The strike took place amid the backdrop of 30,000 casual and agency
workers being recruited to “help clear up the backlog”. In response, one worker
who chose to stay anonymous said “the strikes need to be escalated… one or two
day strikes are not enough, because its just not going have an effect with all
those scabs brought in”. But in saying that he also recognised the adverse
affect on the workforce of losing pay when out on strike. “But in order win we
need to escalate, and I think most of the men are aware of that” he continued
and all others who were engaged in conversation with us were in agreement. This
particular worker was also dissatisfied with the soft demands of the union.
According to him even if the strike was successful in achieving its objectives,
it would only be a partial victory for the workers because the union accepts
that some jobs would have to go.
The reason for, or shall we say excuse for these attacks on the workers
is the alleged 10% decrease in mail volumes. Yet, at the same time, Royal Mail
has to audacity to claim “our postmen and women have never delivered more
packets and parcels”. Furthermore, in 2008 the service made a huge £58 million
profit. This begs the question; is there really a need to cut due to lack of
use or is there a different reason for these attacks?
All workers on the picket line were unanimous about one thing; no
privatisation! They saw Lord Mandelson as the architect of their demise. The planed
machinery, instead of reducing the workload and improving the conditions of the
workers, is being brought in to increase exploitation. Management would get rid
of a large portion of fulltime skilled workers and replace them with part time
employees. This has a two fold effect – both benefiting the management of
course. Firstly, they would make a huge saving on wages, this is the obvious
effect, and would as a result increase profitability. Secondly, part time
workers are not as easy to organise into a union, therefore, in the future much
easier to manipulate and exploit with attacks on their conditions.
It seems obvious that Mandelson is pushing for these counter-reforms in
order to make the Royal Mail more attractive to a prospective privateer. The
only reason the service was not privatised earlier is because a buyer was not
found who would pay what the government are asking for it. With this new
“modernisation”, Royal Mail will seem like juicy prospect for any slick haired
sharp suited privateer. And what might be the reason for privatisation? Well,
one picketing worker summed it up very well; “it’s the massive black hole in
the treasury, their solution to the crisis is to cut or in other words, cut our
wages and conditions”.
Eddie Kacar
