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Communication Workers Union

Eastern Number Five Branch

 Keep The Post Public

Photos from the National Rally, 14/03/09

Keep The Post Public

Dear Colleagues

Welcome to the 1^st of my Newsletters, you may have seen articles in the press over the past few weeks; regarding the Privatisation of Royal Mail this newsletter is to keep you updated as to what is going on nationally between the Union and the Government.

One of the articles covered was the General Secretary’s comments regarding the union’s threat to withdraw from the Labour Party if privatisation is carried out

Union-Labour Relations Strained by Government Privatisation Plans

Speaking at a Labour Party Joint Policy Commission meeting in the House of Commons between senior trade union and government figures, Billy Hayes said that Royal Mail privatisation plans are a defining moment union-Labour relations.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: “Privatisation of Royal Mail is a totemic issue for postal unions CWU and Unite.   

“The current government plans are a defining moment in the relationship between the unions and the government. The relationship will be severely strained towards breaking point.

 “Coupled with planned job losses and office closures in Royal Mail, the government’s actions are placing a huge strain on the unions’ relationship with the Labour Party.”

The CWU has an agreed policy to ballot members on disaffiliation should privatisation of Royal Mail take place.” this was indorsed when Emergency Motion E6 was carried at Annual Conference in 2008.

 The last time the union disaffiliated from the Party was between 1927 & 1945 this was due to an act of parliament making it illegal for Civil Service Unions to affiliate to the TUC or Labour Party.

Since the publication of the Hooper report the union nationally and indeed locally have been busy drumming up support for the campaign to keep the Post Public.

Nationally meetings have taken place between the union and senior members of the Government and the Labour Party, the union has commissioned a public opinion poll in which 75% of the public were opposed to any sell off, rising to 89% if foreign investment was involved.

At the time of writing 139 MP’s have signed an Early Day Motion (EDM428) calling for a wholly publicly owned, integrated Royal Mail Group, these MP’s will be voting against the Government if they try to go ahead with privatisation.

Number 10 Petition

The union have set up a petition on the Number 10 website, you can sign this by going to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk//royal-mail-sale this is open for anyone to sign please circulate to all your friends and family at the time of writing over 4,940 names have been added.

Locally

The branch has been busy by contacting the MP’s within the branch boundaries, asking them to sign the Early Day Motion and pointing out the effects that privatisation will have on the communities that they serve.

In the next few days your Rep will be handing out post cards to you if your job is worth more to you than 27p please fill the card in and put a 2^nd class stamp on it and send it to your MP.

I have been in discussions with all the trade unions in the Peterborough Area to gain their backing for our campaign these include PCS who represent members in PassPort Offices, Tax offices, Inland Revenue, Land Registry and the Job Centre, GMB T&GW and Unison all represent members in the Council and Unison Health Care from the Hospital. All have pledged their support.

I have also been in contact with all the Constituency Labour Parties within the branch and have had motions carried at their meetings backing our campaign each CLP has in turn written to the Labour Party registering their support for the CWU campaign.

So as you can see we are putting pressure on the Government in many ways to stop the privatisation of our industry.

For up to date information why not give us your email address (click HERE) so that you can receive information from CWU HQ’s as it happens or visit www.cwu.org or www.cwue5.org

Thank You for taking the time to read this

Yours

Andy

Andy Beeby

Branch Chairman

branch.chair@cwue5.org

16^th February 2009