CWU Follow

POSTAL WORKERS across Britain will start voting in a strike ballot over pay in two weeks time. At the same time a separate ballot begins in the capital over London weighting. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) postal executive voted to call the ballots last week. Their decision is the result of huge pressure from below. Postal workers are fed up with grafting harder and harder for a pathetically small pay packet and they have told their union they want action.

LEADERS OF the CWU union have postponed a decision on whether to call strike ballots over the national pay offer and London weighting. But the issue will not go away.

LEADERS OF the Communication Workers Union (CWU) faced a key test this week. On Tuesday the union's postal executive was to vote on its response to demands for a strike ballot over London weighting. A press report in advance of the meeting suggested that the union's national leaders were opposed to a ballot because the annual pay negotiations with Royal Mail were "only just beginning".

TONY WOODLEY, the newly elected general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), laid into New Labour at the union's conference in Brighton this week. He accused the government of surrendering to big business. He made a devastating criticism of Alan Johnson, former leader of the CWU union, who is now a New Labour minister.

"UNIONS HAVE been mobilising and we expect good delegations from the postal workers' CWU and firefighters' FBU," says Matt Saywell. He is a member of Broxbourne Against Racism, which is mobilising for Saturday's march in the Hertfordshire town where the BNP has one councillor. "The GMB London Region is also supporting the march, as are local churches," says Matt. "We've had a really good response from local people."

THIS YEAR'S conference of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was the most political ever. There is sometimes a sense in the union that the "big politics" discussions are the preserve of relatively few activists and that the rest do not really get engaged until the nitty-gritty discussions about pay, jobs and hours. If that were ever true, it certainly wasn't this year.

IN EVERY debate at last week's CWU conference there was anger about various aspects of New Labour policies. This wasn't just shown over the war on Iraq (see here). CWU delegates condemned New Labour for their treatment of the firefighters during their recent pay dispute.

OPPOSITION TO the war in Iraq goes deep into the union movement. The tone was set this week at the CWU union conference for postal and telecoms workers in Bournemouth. In his opening address general secretary Billy Hayes said, "We can't buy into Bush's plans for the world.

TONY BLAIR'S candidate for a top position in the postal workers' CWU union was soundly defeated last week. John Keggie, a member of Labour's national executive, was defeated by Dave Ward for the post of deputy general secretary (postal). This is the position which Keggie presently holds. Keggie took 16,814 votes - Ward won 19,404.

POSTAL WORKERS in London are continuing their pay campaign although the prospect of unofficial action is unlikely in the short term. London branch secretaries and reps met the CWU union's general secretary, Billy Hayes, last week.

IN ONE of the most extraordinary trade union ballots in history, London postal workers have voted by 19,803 to 91 votes for action over pay. This could lead to unofficial action that would stop the post across London. The ballot was a 99.5 percent vote to take on Post Office bosses. It was called unofficially because national CWU union leaders refused to sanction it.

A STRIKE planned by thousands of BT engineers was called off last week after the employers won a high court injunction. Bosses claimed that the workers' CWU union had failed to give the necessary notice required under the anti-union laws.