CWU

Communication Workers' Union

Royal Mail sell-off: step up the campaign!

Pete Firmin, a CWU activist in London, spoke to Solidarity about the battle against privatisation of Royal Mail. Legislation to part-privatise the post was introduced into the House of Lords by the Government on 25 February, and is likely to reach the House of Commons in the next two or three months. There were several hundred on the CWU demonstration against privatisation in Wolverhampton on 14 March, and it was quite lively towards the end. But, given the way it was organised, you could hardly call it a national demonstration. There are no moves inside the CWU for a national demonstration as...

Stop the Royal Mail sell-off!

The Postal Services Bill, under which the New Labour government plans to sell off 30% of Royal Mail, was brought to the House of Lords for its second reading on 10 March. The legislation should come to the House of Commons within the next two or three months. The Government seems intent on ramming through the privatisation by using Tory support for it to overwhelm a probably sizeable rebellion by Labour MPs. Although New Labour, like all other capitalist governments, has suddenly been convinced of the need for public ownership of banks in order to save the economic system from disaster, it is...

Stop the Royal Mail sell-off!

The Postal Services Bill, under which the New Labour government plans to sell off 30% of Royal Mail, was brought to the House of Lords for its second reading on 10 March. The legislation should come to the House of Commons within the next two or three months. The Government seems intent on ramming through the privatisation by using Tory support for it to overwhelm a probably sizeable rebellion by Labour MPs. Although New Labour, like all other capitalist governments, has suddenly been convinced of the need for public ownership of banks in order to save the economic system from disaster, it is...

Ballot on BT pensions

BT PENSIONS: CWU and Connect unions are conducting a consultative ballot of their members from 27 November to 18 December. The leaderships want members to accept a pension review they have negotiated with BT. BT employees should reject this deal. CWU and Connect members opposing the pension deal are campaigning for a “no” vote in the ballot, pointing out that the deal will mean: • increasing normal retirement age from 60 to 65; • moving to a scheme based on career average earnings rather than final salary; • increasing contributions from workers themselves. The union leaderships claim that...

BT workers vote to accept pension cuts

The CWU union reports: "BT members have given their strong endorsement to the proposed Agreement on BT Pensions. 67% of members voted to accept, with 33% voting to reject the offer. The turnout of 40% is high in the context of a postal ballot". For background see: Ballot on BT pensions Sell-out threat on BT pensions .

Brown backs Mandelson on Royal Mail privatisation

Gordon Brown has confronted the discontent among Labour MPs about part-privatising Royal Mail head-on by emailing Labour MPs to say that he is 100% behind Peter Mandelson on this. . The union representing most Royal Mail workers, CWU, has responded: "There is no need to seek private funding from outside companies in a joint venture. This would open the floodgates for full-blown, damaging privatisation. Post is a key public and business service..." Left Labour MP John McDonnell has said: "This is a privatisation beyond what even Thatcher achieved. [It] will result in significant job losses and...

Sell-out threat on BT pensions

CWU executive voted last week for a deal to sell out BT workers on our pensions. As reported in the Guardian , BT will announce its plans soon. They'll almost certainly be a combination of increased retirement age and reduced benefits for the final salary scheme. CWU itself is cagey about the details. My branch itself will only make them available to members at specially convened briefing sessions. The CWU website carries a tetchy news item: "Negotiations on these issues have been protracted and difficult, but we expect to make a joint announcement on the details of the review next week."...

CWU debate report not accurate

The article "A watershed moment in union politics" in Solidarity 3/135 contained misleading comments about the events at the CWU Conference earlier in the month. Firstly, it made reference to the motion that called for the CWU to campaign to reverse the decision of the 2007 Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth to restrict democracy. This motion did not "fail to reach the floor". It was on the agenda but was not reached due to a prolonged debate on a motion that called for the CWU to disaffiliate from the Labour Party and support a new workers’ party. The motion on the Bournemouth changes...

Burslem postal workers' strike

Around 600 postalworkers and other trade unionists took part in a national demonstration called by the Communication Workers’ Union in Stoke on 19 January. Over a hundred CWU members at the Burslem office have been on strike since 18 December in support of twelve victimised colleagues suspended by Royal Mail management last September. The background to this action is the CWU postal executive’s vote to call off national action over pay, pensions and jobs and leave discussions over new “flexible conditions” to local negotiations. This has left local managers attempting to push through new...

Calling off Action: Where is the SWP Going?

A key factor in trashing the possibility of a united public-sector fightback this year against Gordon Brown’s 2% limit has been the decision by the civil service union PCS, although it already had a live ballot mandate for action, to withdraw into prolonged “consultations” of its membership while the POA and CWU strikes and the Unison health and local government ballots came and went. Having “consulted” and announced that PCS members supported further national strike action, the PCS leadership then... decided to call off any further national action, at least for the time being. The main force...

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