Business secretary Lord Mandelson’s plans to hand a chunk of the Royal Mail to a private equity firm are set to receive a blow on Friday, as 10,000 postal workers in London prepare to strike.
Royal Mail’s challenge to some of the London strike ballots means that three big offices – Nine Elms, Mount Pleasant and Rathbone Place – will not be on strike this week.
The CWU union met in Bournemouth this week amid uncertainty over the government’s plans to privatise Royal Mail, a wave of management attacks on the union, and a political crisis that is gripping the government.
Dennis Kilgariff from Oxford moved a motion calling on the union to withdraw support from MPs who have not backed the union’s Early Day Motion against privatisation.
Union reps and activists from the Burslem delivery office in Stoke-on-Trent who have been victimised by Royal Mail organised a well-attended fringe meeting to tell delegates about their case.
Postal workers in Watford have voted to strike in defence of the union’s area safety rep Bob Kennedy, who has been suspended without charge for nine weeks.
Another theme at the conference was the CWU’s efforts to win new members in businesses outside of postal services and British Telecom, which provide the bulk of the union’s membership.
Postal workers in London have voted by 91 percent in favour of strike action as part of a fight to defend their jobs, their union, and the publicly-owned postal services they provide.
As Lord Mandelson toured television studios last week defending his plan to sell a share of Royal Mail to vulture capitalists CVC, we in the London division of the CWU union were totting up our votes for strike action.
