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A key argument inside the CWU union centres on the relationship between the union and the Labour Party.

Crick Workers at the Royal Mail’s flagship National Distribution Centre in Crick, Northamptonshire, are threatening to ballot for strike action in a dispute over the introduction of new routes for network drivers.

The postal workers’ strike against Royal Mail has been a crucial fight for all those who believe in public services, run by workers with decent pay, pensions and conditions. With over 130,000 members of the postal workers’ CWU union taking part in eight days of action, the strikers were in the forefront of the battle to break Gordon Brown’s public sector pay freeze.

More than 130,000 postal workers who struck solidly for a total of eight days in their battle with Royal Mail have spent more than a week in suspense, as their union leadership debated a revised offer from the company.

A group of more than 20 CWU activists came together last Saturday to discuss Royal Mail’s offer and the union’s response to it.

The small revisions to last week’s Royal Mail offer are paltry compared to what could have been won with more action.

I have been a post worker in Galashiels, Scotland, for the best part of ten years and in that time the changes in the job have been horrendous.

The deal discussed by the union’s postal executive on Monday and Tuesday would sweep away crucial rights, steal our pensions, clear the way for more bullying, and give managers even more power to order us about.

Royal Mail has set up a sorting office in Southgate, north London, which is entirely staffed by non-union scab labour and managers.

The fierce battle between Royal Mail and the postal workers’ CWU union has seen management forced to make a new offer, despite them having repeated "the offer is the offer" throughout the dispute.

There is a deep crisis in the postal workers’ CWU union that centres on its political fund – but reflects much wider troubles in the relationship between the unions and the Labour Party.

The contents of Royal Mail’s revised offer to the postal workers’ CWU union were unclear as Socialist Worker went to press. But initial leaks to the media suggest the company has made few moves towards meeting the union’s demands.