CWU

The media arm of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group empire announced on 7 November that it plans to derecognise unions organising at the company, including the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Virgin is offering an internal “Voice Forum” as an alternative staff representative, and will ballot employees on whether they wish to be represented this body or by an independent union.

A CWU statement said: “It’s self-evident that a company’s own ‘employee forum’ cannot possibly be as independent as a democratically accountable trade union”.

The move sends a worrying signal to other industrial sectors —

A 48-hour wildcat strike by postal workers in Bridgewater, south west England, ended in victory as a suspended Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) activist was returned to work.

Workers also secured agreement for national talks around deteriorating industrial relations at the Bridgewater Delivery Office, where the CWU accuses bosses of heavy-handed management, refusal to comply with agreed upon consultation procedures, and making unilateral cuts to workers’ hours.

Dave Wilshire, branch secretary of Bristol CWU, said: “Royal Mail can say what it likes but the fact is they would not talk to us

At this year’s Communication Workers Union (CWU) conference (22-26 April), the controversial issue of the CWU’s role in “workfare” schemes in Royal Mail (RM) was swept under the carpet.

The CWU Executive supported a motion from South Central No 1 branch (which is influenced by the SWP) full of sound and fury about the principle of workfare, but which stopped short of criticising the current use of the system in Royal Mail!

Although the scheme agreed between the union and Royal Mail contains negotiated guarantees for those taken on, the interaction with the benefits system is unchallenged and

On 27 February, the Daily Mail issued a front page rallying call to British business to save the government’s workfare programme.

Quoting Sir Stuart Rose, former Executive Chairman of Marks & Spencer, the paper ordered firms to “show some backbone”.

The Mail is responding to a wave of companies and charities refusing to take up the so-called “work experience” scheme. The list grows everyday and now includes TK Maxx, Sainsbury's, Waterstones, Shelter and Oxfam.

In the Daily Mail article Rose recounts his humble beginnings, shelf-stacking and sweeping floors. He was however a management trainee

London postal workers have scored a partial, but perhaps ultimately pyrrhic, victory in their battles against closures and job losses at three Royal Mail workplaces in the capital (the mail centres at Twelvetrees in Bow and the Nine Elms centre in south London and the delivery centre at Rathbone Place).

Following a vote for strike action, which passed by a resounding majority, the Communication Workers' Union held off naming strike dates in order to enter into new negotiations with Royal Mail management. The deal they have reached lifts the threat of compulsory redundancies and secures some

Planned strikes by London postal workers are in limbo as of 13 June, with the postal workers’ union CWU still closeted in talks with Royal Mail bosses.

On 23 May the CWU announced that 79% of members voting from workplaces in London facing total or partial closure had backed strikes.

Royal Mail wants to close Twelvetrees Lane mail centre in East London and Nine Elms mail centre in South West London, sharply scale down the big Mount Pleasant centre in Islington, and close the Rathbone Place delivery office just off Oxford Street.

All the closures are due to go through this year. Some work was

An emergency motion passed unanimously at the Communication Workers Union conference called on sorting offices all over the country to refuse to handle mail from three London mail centres threatened with closure. This is likely to cause unofficial walkouts as union members get suspended for refusing to carry out an instruction from management.

In the meantime, a ballot of the mail centres — Nine Elms, Rathbone Place and Twelvetrees Crescent — was returned with a yes vote for industrial action. This is not being acted on while talks are in process, but it is expected that the ballot of the

On 23 May the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) announced that 79% of voting postal workers in London had backed strike action against the closure of three London mail centres.

The turnout was around 54%, and over 3,000 London postal workers could now strike in June as they attempt to save Nine Elms, Rathbone Place and the Twelvetrees Crescent centre in Bow. Other major London mail centres not threatened with closure, such as the giant Mount Pleasant site in Islington, also face significant cuts. Mount Pleasant could potentially be reduced to 57% of its current size. Royal Mail bosses

This year’s CWU Conference comes as the pressure in both the postal and telecoms sectors is set to increase.

In the Postal sector the threats from Royal Mail to close more mail centres has been met by postive ballots for strike action in the areas affected. The key question is whether those members affected will be left to fight alone or whether the Union will call a national ballot.

A motion from the Postal Executive giving them the authority to take national industrial action has been passed. Meanwhile, officers are in talks to see whether a deal can be done on the redeployment of staff

“Family, faith and flag” is being promoted as Labour’s new big idea.

Nostalgia for a time when men were men, the church had more social control, and England used to win World Cups is patently ridiculous. But nostalgia can be a strong political force — a negative one.

I was pondering the negative power of nostalgia after the National Executive Council meeting of the CWU recently. The meeting formally agreed to wipe out the discipline charges made by the previous Union of Postal Workers (UPW) Executive against members of the London Divisional Committee (LDC) who took solidarity action for the