CWU on the front foot
WORKERS, NOV 2007 ISSUE
As Workers goes to press, the future shape of the dispute between the Communication Workers' Union and Royal Mail remains unclear. The union has used imaginative tactics to maximise the impact of the strike and has exposed an apparently uninterested management and government.
But what may have passed for senior Royal Mail management's lack of interest in the strike concealed the fact that they were simply waiting for a High Court judge to grant an injunction declaring the strike illegal over technicalities in the balloting process. We can expect this to happen in every dispute because it is virtually impossible to conduct a ballot of large groups of members and strictly comply with the balloting provisions of this government's anti-trade union laws. Royal Mail and the government would like nothing better than to take the CWU through the courts and destroy the union.
The CWU has made some important gains. The front-loaded 6.9 per cent pay rise over 18 months is an improvement on what Brown has tried to enforce in the public sector. The referral to local level of negotiations on changes in working practices could be a mechanism for continuing through guerrilla struggle.
But the attack on pensions, similar to what is happening in other sections of the public sector, could create a new generation of impoverished elderly forced to work into their seventies and eighties. Think about the new entrants to the postal service who will be prevented from joining the existing pension scheme. They will have no security to look forward to when they retire. This is all part of the process of deconstructing the gains we have made over decades, in order to destroy the working class.
In the circumstances faced by the CWU, with an injunction hanging over them and a hostile employer, they must consider how to defend the union. To call for more national strike days would inevitably lead to legal action, fines and ultimately sequestration. On the other hand, the membership have looked and acted solid during the dispute. It may be that it is time to regroup and consider continuing the dispute locally whilst trying to take steps to protect the union nationally. Workers use their imagination in these situations and can usually be relied upon to make the right decisions.