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‘Public ownership a winner’ say Communists

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http://www.communist-party.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1834%3Apublic-ownership-a-winner-say-communists&catid=132%3Apress-statements&Itemid=167

Communist Party trade union organiser, Anita Halpin, has welcomed the upsurge in strikes and demonstrations against the Tory-led government’s austerity and privatisation. 

Addressing the Party’s Executive Committee in Cardiff this weekend, she accused the Tories, Liberal Democrats, and big business of `waging class war’ on workers, the unemployed and their families. 

Ms Halpin pointed to industrial action ballots and strikes by higher education staff, teachers, civil servants, fire-fighters, probation officers, and postal workers against privatisation and pay cuts and in defence of pensions, wages, jobs, and public services.

In particular, she urged solidarity with Ineos oil refinery workers at Grangemouth who have been locked out after protesting against the victimisation of Unite trade union convenor, Stephen Deans.

“The refinery is too important to the Scottish economy to remain in the hands of such a bullying, reckless, and union-busting management,” she argued, while calling upon the labour movement to demand that the SNP government in Edinburgh to take the plant into public ownership.

Britain’s Communists also reiterated their call for the Labour Party leadership to pledge to renationalise the railways, energy utilities, and Royal Mail after the next General Election.

“Such a policy would be a vote winner, now that so many people have had enough of the soaring pieces, mass sackings, and fat cat profits that always go with privatisation”, Ms Halpin insisted.

The CP leadership welcomed the formation of nearly 80 People’s Assembly groups in towns and cities across Britain. It was agreed that these should work closely in a “broad democratic alliance” with trade unions and trades councils in their locality to combat austerity policies, defend public services and build solidarity for workers in struggle.

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Postal workers’ strike: Royal Mail should expect a battle royal

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/postal-workers-strike-royal-mail-cwu-privatisation

Image of post office van next to postboxIt’s been a case of third time unlucky for the postal workers’ union (CWU). It defeated the privatisation of Royal Mail in 1994 under the Tories and again in 2009 under Labour. Despite employing similar tactics of political lobbying and industrial action, on Tuesday the company was floated on the stock exchange. The share price has risen by almost 50% since then. And just a tiny handful of postal workers refused to take up the free share offer open to them.

Some have proclaimed it’s “game over” for the CWU and any planned industrial action – the left-leaning New Statesman pronounced striking now was “a little bit pointless”.

Yes, the CWU was caught on the hop by a sell-off timetable that was brought forward, a bargain basement initial share price and having to take extra time to fully check the accuracy of its membership records in order to avoid a possible high court injunction to stop any action.

But exactly the opposite is now true. So while industrial action is extremely unlikely to bring Royal Mail back into public hands any time soon – especially as the Labour leadership reneged on its own party policy within days of it being set , it is still vital. This is because it is necessary to allow the workforce to have the chance to contest what privatisation turns out be. And, that’s why postal workers today voted by 4-1 for action on a high turnout.

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Royal Mail offers £300 to postal workers to cross picket lines

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/15/royal-mail-cross-picket-lines-strike

Image of Postal workers rally

 

The Royal Mail is offering a £300 bonus to any of its 150,000 staff who cross the picket line in any forthcoming nationwide postal strikes.

Moya Greene, its chief executive, wrote to all employees before Wednesday’s strike ballot result to offer the sum if they continue working while colleagues are out on strike.

… <about shares being ridiculously undervalued >

Greene’s last-ditch attempt to avert the first nationwide strike in four years came as the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it was confident workers would back industrial action when it announces the results of a strike ballot on Wednesday afternoon.

Postal workers described her offer as an “act of desperation and discrimination” and a “scab bonus”. Paul Firmage, one of the 371 of Royal Mail’s 150,000 staff to rejected free shares in the privatisation, said the £300 bonus was “yet another bribe”.

“They are offering people money to be a scab. It is a scab bonus,” he said.”

The CWU said: “It’s an act of desperation and discrimination. We believe it’s irrelevant and will make no difference to the strike ballot.”

In a consultative ballot this year 96% of postal workers were opposed to the privatisation, which they said will erode their pay and conditions.

If staff have voted in favour of industrial action, the first strike could take place on 23 October and would likely be followed by a series of rolling strikes in the runup to Christmas.

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Continue ReadingRoyal Mail offers £300 to postal workers to cross picket lines

Postal workers push ahead with strike plans over pay and conditions

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http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/13/postal-workers-strike-ballot-pay-conditions

Postal workers union says staff concerns are about longer term issues not Friday’s 38% rise in the price of free shares

Image of post office van next to postbox

Royal Mail staff are pushing ahead with plans for strikes in the run up to Christmas as the battle over privatisation intensifies.

The Royal Mail’s 150,000 workers were handed £2,200 worth of free shares as part of the privatisation, handing them at least an £800 instant paper profit on the first day of trading.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said the 38% rise in value would not make “one scintilla of difference” to employees, who are expected to vote for strike action on Wednesday. Staff are prevented from selling their shares for three years.

The union is planning a nationwide strike as early as 23 October – before balloting for further strikes in the run up to Christmas.

“It is likely to be an all-out strike first, then rolling strikes in the run up to Christmas,” a union source told the Guardian.

The union, which represents more than 100,000 postal staff, had wanted to hold the strike – the first since 2009 – before the privatisation but the government started the sell-off sooner than expected. More than 95% of Royal Mail staff were opposed to the privatisation in a consultative ballot earlier this year.

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[Royal Mail privateers get thousands of pissed-off posties.]

 

Continue ReadingPostal workers push ahead with strike plans over pay and conditions

Royal Mail refusenik calls share offer ‘a step backwards’

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/10/royal-mail-refusenik-share-offer

Postman Paul Firmage, one of only 368 employees to have turned down the £2,200 of free shares, says they are ‘little more than a bribe’

Paul Firmage, a postman who turned down Royal Mail shares as a matter of principleOf the 150,000 Royal Mail employees, just 368 have turned down the £2,200 of free shares offered to them as part of the privatisation of the 500-year-old company.

One of them, Paul Firmage, 59, described the free shares as “little more than bribe” and said he refused to take the shares as a “matter of principle”, even though they could be worth more than £2,600 by Friday if the stock rises by 20% or more as predicted.

“I know my refusal to take the shares won’t make much difference, but it is a matter of principle. I’ve always been opposed to privatisations. It’s a step backwards,” he told the Guardian. “Only those at the top – the snouts in the trough brigade, the corporate executives and the speculators – will win. We, the postmen and women on the ground, will lose.”

Firmage, 59, from Downham Market, Norfolk, admits that others think he is silly for not accepting the shares despite his principles. “Yeah, I could have taken the money and still been opposed to it, but principles are principles.

“Some people think it is amazing to turn down £2,000, but I’m looking at it from a long-term point of view – the service will rapidly deteriorate. When it’s private they can cut back on pay and conditions. Our conditions are quite good at the moment.”

He conceded that he might have thought differently about taking a principled stand if he had had a family to support. “I’ve got an older brother, but no other family,” he said. “If I had a family around me I might have a different view.

“[Royal Mail] has always been a public company and there are some things that should be beyond privatisation,” he said. “It’s a state service – it should remain a state service.

“Everything these days is geared towards money. We’ve seen the water companies, the energy companies, the railways, all go. You’ve only got to look at the stock exchange to see everything that used to be ours.”

Firmage, who has been a postman for 11 years, said many colleagues had said they were also going to turn down the shares in protest, but “[the company] hit us with a lot of propaganda”.

The rejected shares will be redistributed between the 150,000 staff who have accepted the shares, which they must hold on to for at least three years.

The 368 figure includes all eight of Royal Mail’s non-executive directors, who are not taking part in the free allocation.

 

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