CWU Follow

LEADERS OF the postal workers' CWU union have halted a national strike ballot. The vote was about the proposed joint venture between the Romec cleaning and engineering section and the private sector.

CWU union leaders held back calls for a more combative response to attacks from Post Office management at the annual conference last week. But, because delegates were furious about management's assaults, the union leaders had to make occasional signs of militancy. Deputy general secretary John Keggie ordered the expulsion of the Royal Mail observers from the hall in response to news that some delegates were facing disciplinary charges for attending the conference.

Alarming signals for bosses at BT WORKERS IN one section of BT have beaten off an attempt to hand them over to another firm. The dispute involved some 120 members of the CWU union in BT's RedCare section, which monitors BT alarms installed in business premises.

LEADERS OF the CWU postal workers' union have called off a strike planned for this week. They claim they have achieved a "major victory" over pay. In fact they have surrendered to Royal Mail bosses' and threaten to weaken workers' ability to fight in the future. It is important that activists throw themselves into defeating the proposed deal in the forthcoming ballot.

A NATIONAL lobby of parliament by around 1,000 post workers was scheduled to take place this week. It came as heated arguments split the union's leadership over the response to the Post Office's announcement of mass job losses. The CWU union's top leaders support a deal to accept up to 30,000 job cuts as long as they are "voluntary".

Why have Post Office managers felt confident enough to move towards 40,000 job losses and the destruction of Parcelforce? One big reason has to be the behaviour of the CWU leaders last week. They met to discuss the possibility of holding a one-day strike over pay on Wednesday this week.

Postal Workers could hold a national strike on Wednesday of next week. It would be about pay. Postal workers are fed up with poverty pay-a basic of just £250 a week. Many work six days a week and start at around 5.30am. The executive of the CWU postal workers' union believed it had secured agreement over pay with Royal Mail. CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie said the deal would mean £300 a week pensionable pay by October 2003.

LEADERS OF the CWU postal workers' union were set this week to recommend that workers accept a new pay offer in a postal ballot. The deal is a disgrace which will open the way to new assaults on jobs and conditions.

POSTAL WORKERS in the CWU union will take to the streets in London on Saturday to say no to privatisation. Postcomm, the postal regulator appointed by government, has proposed that private firms should be allowed to grab almost half the mail in Britain from April.

"There is a great deal of discontent among our rank and file with Labour." That is how Billy Hayes, leader of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), summed up why the union last week threatened to withhold £1 million from its donations to the Labour Party.

Some 377 CWU union members who work in the D&DS section of BT are being balloted to take strike action against plans to transfer them to a contractor, ComputaCentre. At a meeting of around 40 union members in London last week there was a heated exchange between the audience and a national executive member.

Postal worker asks 'Should we fund the privatisers?' At a meeting of my CWU branch last week I put a motion to back the conference organised by the Socialist Alliance debating the political fund. The government's announcement of its steps to privatise the Post Office just added fuel to the fire. Why are we giving our money to New Labour when it is getting rid of thousands of jobs and wrecking the service? Our union gave over £1.5 million to Labour last year.