CWU

Articles: Determined to win: diary of a postal worker 'We must dig in for a long dispute': London postal workers' leader speaks out Download PDF • Other entries in the “My Life At Work” series, and other workers' diaries

Articles: Postal workers can win New Labour is nothing new Solidarity reborn A peace process without the IRA? (Jack Cleary) Download PDF

Scottish postal workers' strike For a Labour government in '96! The arms merchant rules – ok? Scargills 'Socialist Labour Party' – a stillborn stalinist sect Organising the socialists Download PDF

Tube cleaners in the RMT union have faced a lock-out as managers sent them home for refusing to use “biometric booking-on” machines. The machines are intended to replace the existing system of booking on by signing in with station supervisors, and by phone. They require cleaners to enter a fingerprint. The RMT has raised concerns about the use of the machines to collect data on cleaners, many of whom are migrant workers, as well as their possible use as a further pretext for reducing station staffing levels. A ballot of RMT cleaner members working for ISS returned a large majority in favour of...

The CWU (Communication Workers’ Union, covering post and telecom workers) met for its postal, telecom, and general conferences on 27 April to 1 May. The biggest political debate was on Scottish independence. Several Scottish delegates spoke for a “no” to independence, saying that “as a union, we’ re stronger together” and they won a large majority. Only one of the 13 Scottish branches is pro-independence. Of the two motions on the Collins Review, the more combative was defeated, and the “steady as you go” one was carried. A rule change was submitted by a regional committee and a branch...

On 1 May, UCU members at Lambeth College in South London will begin indefinite strike action to block attacks on their conditions. These attacks include increased working and contact hours, cuts to annual leave, additional duties for no extra pay, reduced redundancy notice and drastically reduced sick pay. Management are attempting to impose the new contracts on new workers, current staff who are promoted, and hourly-paid staff. They have also said that these new conditions may be rolled out to cover all staff. Unison members, part of the Lambeth Council branch, are also balloting, but are not...

Royal Mail has announced plans to cut 1,600 jobs. The cuts, mainly of back-room and Head Office jobs, come in the wake of the privatisation of the service late last year. Unite and the CWU union, both of whom have many members working in the post, have said they are considering balloting for strike action. A spokesman from Unite claimed the job cuts had been calculated to make the service more attractive to the market. Almost four months ago, the CWU agreed a deal with management that would give Royal Mail workers a 9% pay increase and a range of guarantees against zero-hour contracts and...

Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in Royal Mail will be balloted from 21 January to 4 February on the “Agenda for Growth” agreement. The deal proposes a 9.1% pay increase over three years, and includes commitments by Royal Mail to protect workers’ terms and conditions for at least five years. But those commitments are undermined by an enormous loophole in the terms of the deal that allows Royal Mail to renege if bosses deem any of the protections “reasonably likely to have a materially adverse effect on the employer’s business or prospects”. Workers who have not had a pay rise for...

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is recommending a deal to its members in Royal Mail that secures a 9% pay increase over three years and legal protection against outsourcing, casualisation, and zero-hours contracts, but also radically restricts the union’s ability to strike. The deal creates new structures of governance and mediation that the CWU will be legally committed to exhaust before its members can strike at a local level. The agreement also makes clear that any national strike would negate the legal protections offered: “The Employer shall be entitled to notify the CWU at any time...

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) called off a national strike of postal workers, planned for 4 November. Although the immediate issues balloted over were day-to-day industrial issues including pay and pensions, the CWU explicity placed the ballot in the wider context of its political fight against Royal Mail privatisation. A strike before the 15 October sell-off could have thrown a spanner in the works of privatisation. By delaying calling action, and then calling it off entirely, the CWU allowed the privatisation to go through unresisted. A strike due in the separate Crown Post Office...