Every night, all around the country, in the 21st century factories known as call centres, some 750,000 workers will breathe a collective sigh of relief as they get the signal that their shift has finally come to an end.
‘It is crucial that all workers back those striking on 24 April. I will be speaking at a strike rally in Oxford on that day as the branch secretary of the local CWU postal workers’ union.
Attempts by Royal Mail managers at the Burslem delivery office in Stoke on Trent to hamper the CWU union by sacking and disciplining reps is continuing.
Royal Mail bosses are talking peace while making war. Behind the warm words of a "new era in industrial relations", they are trying to break the postal workers’ CWU union by harassing and victimising reps with charges relating to last year’s national postal strike.
Socialist Worker spoke to Ben and Edgar, two Burslem strikers in the CWU postal workers’ union who between them have over 30 years’ experience in Royal Mail.
Royal Mail is spending thousands of pounds a week in an effort to break a postal workers’ strike at the Burslem delivery office in Stoke. Now the CWU postal workers’ union is threatening to spread the strike across the Midlands region.
The ballot result in the postal workers’ CWU union – which saw members voting to accept a deal to end the dispute with Royal Mail by 51,000 to 28,000 – has disappointed many union activists.
Postal workers in the CWU union have voted by approximately 2 to 1 to accept a deal recommended by their union leadership to end their dispute over pay and conditions.
Postal workers have only a few days remaining in which to vote on the deal negotiated by the leaders of the CWU union to end their dispute over pay, modern-isation and pensions.
Myself and thousands of other postal workers across Britain this week received ballot papers from our CWU union asking us if we are willing to accept a leadership-backed deal to end our long running dispute.
