(29th June, 2007 outside Oxford East
Delivery Office)
This was my first official strike (I’d been on a couple of
wildcat ones) and I had some qualms about getting up at an ungodly hour when I
didn’t have to come in anyway just to stand on a picket line for a bit.
Anyway, I
turned up to find a not inconsiderable turn-out right on the entrance to the
industrial estate where our office is situated. About 30 posties (roughly a
quarter of our total workforce) were assembled with a C.W.U. banner proudly
displayed. I thought East Oxford itself was a tad under-represented, but
Headington – which recently relocated to us, must have had at least 80%! No one
who wasn’t in management employ crossed our picket and we later heard there were
no strikebreakers in the building, just four or five stressed managers
preparing themselves for the public onslaught at the locker room. This seemed
to perfectly illustrate the strength of feeling which messrs Leighton and
Crozier refused to acknowledge. Most of the postmen whom I’d heard from the
previous day had decided to treat the day as a lie-in and unpaid holiday – I
felt this was their prerogative; after all, many were far more diligent at
attending meetings at the Cowley workers than I who rarely went and also at
championing their co-workers rights within the workplace. Different people
bring different things to the table.
To resume,
my workmates cut a merry throng with flasks of tea, coffee and Bonhomie
aplenty, motorists stopping to cheer or parp their horns, plus an occasional
"get back to work!!" – surprising how brave people can be within the security
of their cars! Support seemed particularly vociferous from bus drivers and
D.H.L. drivers. Most of the managers, who are decent, had come into work early,
maybe to avoid passing us but when a manager did drive past there was just some
good natured banter – not a patch on the tense standoffs of 70s miners strikes.
About
8am after chatting to Niklas, a young smiling student from Socialist Appeal, reinforcements
showed up in the form of stalwarts Joe and Julie and I buggered off.
