Postal workers gear up for battle

EXCLUSIVE
Louise Nousratpour in Bournemouth
Wednesday May 25, 2011
The Morning Star

The prospect of national walkouts by Royal Mail workers came a step closer today when delegates to the CWU conference voted unanimously to give full support to London postal workers fighting compulsory redundancies.

During a lively conference debate in Bournemouth, delegates heard that up to 1,500 workers in London could lose their jobs as a result of Royal Mail's decision to close four mail centres.

These include Mount Pleasant, Nine Elms at Vauxhall, East London Mail Centre at Bow and Rathbone Place in central London.

The closure plans prompted 3,300 members working in those centres to vote overwhelmingly for strike action.

Delegates gave their full support to an emergency motion today, which stated that "there will be an industrial action ballot of the whole postal membership if Royal Mail make any postal worker compulsorily redundant."

Moving the motion on behalf of London divisional committee, Martin Walsh refuted Royal Mail claims that there would be no compulsory redundancies because the affected workers would either be redeployed or had agreed to take voluntary redundancy.

"A total of 3,300 people are employed in the threatened mail centres but there is only 1,800 jobs available," he said.

"There is no doubt that the closures are going to lead to compulsory redundancies unless Royal Mail takes a step back.

"This isn't about protecting bricks and mortar. It's about protecting people. This is one of those moments when the union has got to stand up and support its members."

Mr Walsh also warned that Royal Mail wanted to "break" the union by targeting its stronghold in London.

London divisional rep Mark Palfrey warned delegates that if it got away with compulsory redundancies in London, other areas would be next.

"If it crushes us in London, it will crush you," he said.

The motion also received the seal of approval from the union's executive committee, with deputy general secretary Dave Ward urging delegates to "carry this proposition unanimously and let's move this forward."

As the debate was opened to the floor, speaker after speaker representing members across the country took to the rostrum pledging their unwavering support for their London colleagues.

However, delegates could not be named for fear of reprisal from the company.

A speaker from Oxford said: "It's not enough for us to just cheer from the sidelines. This is a national issue and no part of our union - north, south, east or west - should be out fighting on their own on an issue that affects all of us.

"We need to unite and win," he said to cheers.

A Bradford delegate urged conference to hold local meetings to "build support, hold solidarity collections, their fight is our fight. Make sure we win."

And a Midlands speaker reminded conference that "a couple of days ago, conference voted unanimously for a general strike. Now we've got a dispute of our own and we must show full solidarity."