CWU Eastern 5 Branch

During CWU Annual Conference last week, it was announced that the result for the ballot for industrial action in the London Division had returned a YES vote. Following this announcement an Emergency Motion was put forward to the Postal Conference the policy of which is set out below;

1.   That no Mail Centre/RDC/VOC should handle any of the work from London by un-agreed diversions. This can include Mail Centres, RDC’s, VOC’s requesting industrial action ballots.

2.   That there will be an industrial action ballot of the whole postal membership if Royal Mail makes any postal worker compulsory redundant.

3.   That there will be a communications exercise conducted across the union explaining the seriousness of the situation the union membership is facing concerning compulsory redundancies.

London is going through Office closures, no different to the rest of the country. They have had their Mail Centres halved. This has affected somewhere in the region of 3,500 employees. Royal Mail has a surplus of staff in and around London and as such, employees are facing compulsory redundancy, NOT with a financial settlement, but on statutory terms and payments. For the jobs that remain employees are facing compulsory transfers which include round trips of between 80 – 100 miles a day. 280 employees from Rathbone place are being compulsory transferred into Mount Pleasant Office, but Mount Pleasant has surplus staff already.

Our Mail Centre and Delivery Offices are not safe either. Holbeach, Ramsey and Chatteris are all closing. The Finance Centre in the Mail Centre is relocating to Warrington. In the next six months the Mail Centre will be losing ALL Stevenage second class mail, and it will be sent to the new Hemel Hempstead Office. This means that 120 hours a week (that’s 3 full time jobs) will go. The Mail Centre will also be losing Leicester Flats which will go to South Midlands.

Once Royal Mail initiates the first compulsory redundancy in London, it will automatically follow across the rest of the country. If we allow Royal Mail to continue to railroad their changes, you could be next.

COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES ARE NOT A LONDON ISSUE. THE THREAT OF COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES IS A REAL ONE FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

The issues we face are not isolated to Deliveries, Processing, Distribution or Network. EVERY SINGLE ROYAL MAIL EMPLOYEES JOB IS UNDER THREAT.

Yours Sincerely

Amanda Hill

Branch Secretary