THE UNITED SOCIALIST PARTY
A Party that always campaigns for a fair and just society for all in Britain
Trade Union
Disputes In the UK
2009
Strike by Royal Mail Staff Interim
agreement reached
7th November 2009
ROYAL MAIL DISPUTE – INTERIM AGREEMENT
The Postal Executive, yesterday, unanimously endorsed the attached agreement. It is important that we now tell our members that the strength of their support for strike action has brought us to this position.
We should also tell our members that is was right to suspend strike action. We have always promised our members that we would not take unnecessary strike action.
We would like to thank all of our activists for your hard work and support during this difficult time. We would also like you to pass on our thanks to our members for their strength and solidarity during the ballot and the strikes.
The interim agreement clearly outlines how the full and final agreement will be shaped. It is also clear that Royal Mail have made significant concessions in the bitter long running local disputes. We must now use the strength of the agreement for local reps to re-engage and reach local agreements.
At national level it is essential we now focus our efforts on reaching a final agreement that delivers benefits to our members, customers and the company. This has always been and remains our primary objective.
In line with Royal Mail’s record of misinformation, the company tried last night to position the agreement purely around the achievement of a strike free Christmas. We want a strike free Christmas and a strike free New Year, but the agreement is explicit in recognising that this is dependant upon significant progress being made. The addition of an independent chair for the discussions means that the level of progress will be independently measured at fortnightly intervals to ensure both parties continue to work towards the final agreement. Nobody will be allowed to walk away from the agreement.
Royal Mail has also accepted that the national ballot and all local ballots remain enacted.
In recent weeks and days - even whilst negotiations were taking place at the highest level - Royal Mail continued to deliberately confuse the situation. Now the interim agreement will be backed up by an independent process, Royal Mail’s behaviour is no longer sustainable.
Additionally, the clear up arrangements, discipline and issues around people being taken off pay are dealt with in a stronger way than they have been historically. We know that trust cannot be rebuilt overnight but both parties have a responsibility to work towards it.
All members will receive a direct communication to their home addresses at the end of next week to explain all developments and how we intend to take all these issues forward. There will also be a National Briefing on Friday 13th November. Details for the briefing will follow.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Billy Hayes Martin Collins
Deputy General Secretary (P) General Secretary Assistant Secretary
Ray Ellis Andy Furey Bob Gibson
Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary
Terry Pullinger Kevin Slocombe
Assistant Secretary Head of Communications
Stunning victory for Tube workers
by Paul Haste Morning Star Industrial Reporter
LU staff prove action works as bosses cave in on cutbacks
LONDON’S Tube workers proved that strikes work yesterday after London
Underground bosses caved in and withdrew their threat to make 1,000
redundancies.
The stunning breakthrough in the RMT union’s long-running fight to defend jobs
and beat back Tube bosses’ attacks on workers’ conditions was revealed
exclusively to the Morning Star last night.
RMT leader Bob Crow said that, following the huge capital wide strikes in June,
“London Underground has now agreed to the union’s demand that there be no
compulsory redundancies.”
“As a result of our members standing firm, management has agreed to abide by
the key security of employment clause in our union agreement and this will apply
to all LUL operational staff,” he emphasised.
London Underground had threatened to tear up a hard won union agreement that
protected jobs from being cut after the Tube lines were privatised and handed over
to Metronet and Tubelines.
But, after the privateers ran up £6 billion in debts proving that they couldn’t run the
Underground, the government renationalised the franchises.
LUL executives then tried to renege on the union deal to protect jobs and forcibly
sack a thousand workers in what the RMT feared was just the beginning of the
bosses’ demands to make their staff pay for the debts.
But facing down virulent anti-union tirades from London Mayor Boris Johnson and
the right-wing press, thousands of Tube workers walked out in a 48-hour strike this
summer, in what has now proved to be a successful fightback.
“Thanks to the two days of strike action, we have safeguarded members jobs and
forced management to abide by negotiated agreements,” Mr Crow stressed.
“To win a commitment of ‘no redundancies’ from an employer at a time when
bosses are threatening redundancies every day is a massive victory and shows
what can be done,” he declared.
“The stand that RMT members have taken has proved that, by sticking together,
the union can protect jobs and conditions.”
In a letter to union members, RMT organiser Steve Hedley added his praise for the
stand that Tube workers had taken.
“I want to thank everyone of you who showed steadfast support for your
colleagues who were at risk of being made unemployed,” he wrote.
“In particular, I would like to thank all the reps and activists and those who manned
the picket lines that made our 48-hour dispute a huge success,” he added.
Mr Crow said that the fight will now move on to securing a pay deal, highlighting
that LUL bosses had already been forced to tear up their offer for a fiveyear
agreement that would have raised wages by barely 0.5 per cent.
“This was unacceptable,” he insisted.
“But, as well as securing the agreement on jobs, we have forced LUL management
to back down from victimising workers taking sick leave and we will now be
meeting with ACAS and the other Tube unions to discuss the outstanding issues
around pay,” Mr Crow added.
paulhaste@ peoples-press.com
Some lessons from the Visteon occupations
On 31st of March 2009 Visteon was declared insolvent and put into receivership.
The receivers visited the three UK plants and sacked the workforce of 630 with
no notice or guarantees of redundancy or pension payments. Workers at Enfield
and Belfast plants occupied successfully, but the tactics adopted at Basildon
failed; the occupations soon received widespread support and media attention.
All the workers at all the plants were members of Unite, a legacy from when
Visteon was spun off from Ford Motor Company in 2000 in a deal negotiated by
the T&GWU (Unite’s predecessor) that guaranteed the then workerforce the
same wages and pensions they had won at Ford (‘mirrored conditions’).
However, the T&GWU failed to secure the same conditions for newly hired
Visteon workers who were forced to accept worse conditions.
The Unite leaders were petrified by the threat of legal action if they gave the
slightest hint of support to the occupations, despite the fact that this was a highly
publicised attack on a group of long-standing members by an employer who
cynically had exploited every legal device to protect their profits at the expense of
the workers.
Unite’s London Regional Secretary, Steve Hart instructed the Enfield workers to
leave the plant, otherwise the police would use force to break the occupation and
some occupiers would be held in contempt of court. He offered no way forward
except that Visteon might be shamed into conceding a ‘half-decent’ settlement by
the ‘maximum pressure’ that the Unite General Secretary could apply only on the
condition that the occupation was called off.
Although some spontaneous opposition to the sell-out was voiced, it lacked the
confidence to win the majority to continue the occupation and challenge the law.
Steve Hart and the rest of the Unite leadership had effectively isolated the
Visteon occupation from all other workers’ struggles, particularly the successful
walkout at Lindsey Oil Refinery and the secondary stoppages at other sites in
blatant defiance of the law.
Although the Visteon workers won their minimum legal redundancy pay, their
pensions are still in limbo, and the prospect of secure jobs is slim. This has been
yet another demonstration that when it comes to a face-off between the people
and profits, New Labour and its trade union leader acolytes will act to defend
profits against people, hiding behind the flimsy veil of anti-trade union laws. Not
that all trade union leaders are the same; RMT leader Bob Crow got it right when
he said “New Labour pay out billions for bankers, but buttons for workers”.
Lessons still to be learned for Trade Unionist in 2009
Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets
In 1973, 24 building workers were prosecuted under the 1875 Conspiracy and
Protection of Property Act. The charges were brought long after the conclusion of
the 1972 first and only official national strike in the history of the building and
construction industry. Police escorted the flying pickets when they went from site
to site, and didn’t report any illegality or violence. The strike won important
concessions for building workers, which angered the employers and the Tory
government of the day. The events that followed can only be construed as
politically motivated retribution for the success of the miners strike and the
release of the Pentonville 5 dockers the previous year. Chief Police
Commissioner Robert Mark said the pickets ‘had committed the worst of all
crimes, worse even than murder’; Mr John Platt-Mills QC, defence counsel later
wrote “The trial of the Shrewsbury pickets is the only case I know where the
Government ordered a prosecution in defiance of the advice of senior police and
prosecution authorities”.
All charges of violence and affray were dropped, leaving only conspiracy. 24
pickets were convicted, 6 were sentenced to terms from 6 months to 3 years
served by Des Warren, who died early as a result of his treatment in jail; all the
pickets were blacklisted, preventing them from work. Ricky Tomlinson, now
better known from TV’s Royle Family, served 2 years, gave his verdict on the trial
- “Justice my arse”.
The actions Des and the others took to defend pay, jobs and conditions were
legal and transparent – their only ‘crime’ was to succeed. During the course of
the campaign to exonerate the pickets, the actions of the real conspirators - MI5
and others - has become more apparent. Current Home Secretary Jack Straw
still refuses to release trial documents on the grounds of ‘National Security’.
That’s why the main objective of the campaign is to expose the illegal and secret
actions of the state in carrying out the politically motivated vindictive victimisation
of the pickets by a Tory government determined to criminalise effective trade
unionism.
The national trade union leaders of the time were not prepared for such tactics,
and hoped that the incoming Labour government would find a way to release the
pickets and decriminalise trade unionism. Their optimism was cruelly dashed,
and Des, Ricky and the others paid a heavy price.
The campaign to exonerate the pickets and expose the secret conspiracies of
the state goes on. As Des said from the dock “The working class movement
cannot allow this verdict to go unchallenged.” The lessons of the 1970s trade
union struggles, the victories as well as this travesty of justice, must not be
forgotten.
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What we say
In the UK at the start
of the 21st century, the
state has been
redesigned by the
capitalists in to a
Market Stall UK-within
the World economy.
Big Business and
individual wealthy
people have put in
place politicians
within the UK
governments, who
have corrupted the
democratic processes
of the state.
Those like Margaret
Thatcher (1980’s) and
most recently Tony
Blair but now Brown ,
have run rough shot
over the House of
Commons politicians
using many forms of
misinformation to
further their cause,
and the process is still
continuing.
To regain control of
the UK state can only
be achieved by a
democratic Socialist
Government who puts
at heart the needs and
requirements of the
working classes of this
country above big
international
businesses and
individual wealthy
people. This will take
great strength of
caricature from
individuals and from a
United Socialist Party.
If the capitalist can
change the UK state in
just over 30 years,
then a United Socialist
government could
make real change for
the working classes
within ten years. But
we must have the
mandate from the
people to do this, just
as Blair had in 1997.
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