REFLECTIONS ON THE POSTAL DISPUTE

 

I write this article having just returned from picket duty at Buxton PDO, proud to be part of the CWU’s gallant defence of a once proud industry.

 

Why are postal workers in this mess? In short, European Union directive 97/67/EU.

 

A directive which this Labour government decided to implement seven years before the Dutch and Germans. This means capitalist competitors like DHL and TNT can offer cheaper prices to large scale mail users in business and then hand the delivery of the mail back to the Royal Mail. In fact I deliver about 40 kilos of mail a day, approximately a quarter of which is now competitors mail.

 

The profits Royal Mail once made which subsidised the network and were used to give postal workers at least an inflation proof pay rise, are now going into the pockets of fat cats in Germany, Holland and the USA.

 

What’s the alternative? Will the Labour government see sense and realise the damage which has been done and rein in competition? Or if not, subsidise the mail network?

Not if the minister John Hutton is to be believed. He has denounced the cycle of industrial action, accusing the CWU members of endangering Royal Mail’s future.

So we are not allowed to defend our jobs eh John?

 

Hutton went further and said there would be no reversal of competition and “we are not going to subsidise state owned monopolies.” In fact change the names and it could be any Tory minister from the 1980s-90s talking.

 

What of the other parties?

The Tories created the current massively exploitative system, the Lib-Dems current MEP Bill Newton Dunn congratulated Tony Blair “for having the guts to privatise Royal Mail” during the debate on implementing directive 97/67/EU.

AS for UKIP, although anti-Europe, they would privatise just about everything on the planet and they would even consider joining NAFTA!

 

So that leaves the SLP. Recent election results show us heading in the right direction, and we have the coherent socialist arguments to counter this government’s forthcoming attacks on the workers of this country.

 

So to the picket lines – We have a socialist Britain to build!

 

 

Lynton Bennett