Below we reproduce Dave Ward, General Secretary of the CWU’s statement confirming losing an interim High Court injunction over postal worker strike ballot:
“CWU members will be and are extremely angry and bitterly disappointed that one judge has granted Royal Mail an injunction to invalidate our ballot for strike action.
We balloted over 110,00 members and they voted by over 97% in favour of strike action in a massive 76% turnout.
Not one single person out of 110,000 who were balloted complained to Royal Mail that their right to vote was interfered with. Not one single person out of 110,000 who were balloted complained to the independent scrutineers that their right to vote was interfered with. The electoral reform society who conducted the ballot confirmed it was run in full accordance of the law. And after over seven weeks since the ballot commenced, not one single person has complained to the certification officer who is appointed by the government to regulate trade unions.
Yet despite all of this – with no evidence supporting their claim from any employee – Royal Mail can come to this court in what is a cowardly and vicious attack on its own workforce – and through a witness statement of one manager can he granted an injunction to stop our right to strike in defence over 100,000 jobs and the very future of UK postal services.
We have run a fantastic modern day campaign that combines face to face meetings with use of social media to engage willing members to maximise the yes vote and turnout. Members participated and cast their vote of their own free will. To suggest otherwise is to insult the intelligence and the integrity of thousands and thousands of good hard working people.
We will be considering the judges detailed reasons for this but we want to make it clear that the only thing this union, it’s representatives and it’s members have done – is to run a fantastic modern day campaign to engage and encourage workers to defend their jobs.
This injunction is not only a massive injustice to our members it’s also an injustice to every worker in the country.
We all need to wake up and recognise that this Tory government has deliberately stacked the rules against workers in favour of the constituency they were born to serve – which is big business and the establishment.
We appeal to the TUC and workers everywhere – in what is a call – to arms that’s its time for us to fundamentally shift the balance of forces in this country back to working people and remove these draconian laws once and for all.
To Rico Back and the Royal Mail Board we say you cannot face away from the reality that your victory in this court will be short lived. You cannot face away from the reality that you have completely lost the confidence of the workforce and as a result there is no way you will ever be able to fully implement your plans for the future.
We want our members to know that we will not be moved and we will be doing everything in our power to oppose the companies industry destroying plans and this decision, including appealing against the judgement once we have taken guidance from our lawyers, re-balloting and launching a huge leverage campaign with major shareholders against the companies actions.
This union and our members will not be moved.”
– Dave Ward, General Secretary, CWU
9 Responses
Not particularly a fan of what Royal Mail have done here as it will undoubtedly just stir up even more bad feeling against the company from it’s workforce who are already probably one of the most “old school union” workforce’s in the country.
Whether what they are proposing to strike for is right or wrong they need to realise that the logistics world has (and is constantly) changing and actions such as these just slowly but surely drive their customers away, which will affect far more “jobs and conditions” than they are fighting for!
They are now only the cheapest and most viable option if you send low value/small items, everything else you can get a better service, and in most cases better price using their competitors even if you only have a smallish volume.
The RM collection drivers who collect from us openly admit they are well paid for the jobs they do, and without exception happily admit to their job being “easy” and not pressurised, plus good pensions, lots and lots of holiday leave, no Bank Holiday working etc etc etc. Most of them have been at RM for most of their working life and unfortunately do not realise what we face on a daily basis in the “real world”.
Amazon Logistics and others are slowly and steadily creeping up on RM’s main core business and will be laughing at both the way RM management are handling this, and the dinosaur 1970’s Union/ workforce attitude to this sad situation.
I don’t care anymore! I have now completed my move away from Royal Mail, so don’t have to worry about strikes!
It all reminds me of the suicidal strikes and lock-ins from the 70’s. They all end in tears, bankruptcy and job losses.
Not everyone in RM does exactly the same job. In some areas the employee can easily complete their duties within their allocated hours but others cannot, for what ever reasons.
The CWU want fair pay for fair hours, but the problem is that a lot of the work force abuse this for personal gain. RM now what is happening and are now tarring everyone with the same brush.
Until this issue has been reserves I think that we are all in it for the long haul…
Totally political decision by the dark forces simple no election no injunction 30 years service with royal mail seen the steady decline rico black wants to waive the 6 day uso we will have our day
Pam, if a company puts its prices up then its easy for a business to look around for a better deal. Lots of competition among delivery companies as Royal Mail are finding.
Be an extremely foolish company who puts its prices up simply because of the decline of a competitor.
Historically raising prices too much tends to backfire.
Pam, I am not going to stay with RM just because the company I now use may put their prices up in the future. That thinking would have kept us in the stone age – (not going to use them new-fangled wheel thingies – what if one falls off?)
A lot of you won’t like this but the cwu needs to stop making this political. We have f.. Cked this up. The top people are useless. The union doesn’t really give a shit about us. They have their own agenda
reshape we go again lets hit them where it hurts this time welldone dave n terry keep up the good work