Postal workers deserve our support

I was asked recently re my views regarding the postal strike - well it is clear that Royal Mail workers and management have been on a collision course since the private sector has been forced on the service. I have to say the more I learn about this the more angry I get about how this is being handled. The Green party have been supporting the strike although I have not had time to join any of the local picket lines.

Photo: Time to Support Postman Pat and the rest of Royal Mail workers

Royal Mail management are using the 10% fall in postal communication relative to digital to force through cuts to postal workers earnings often using threats and intimidation and wrecking conditions of service. This is a difficult time to be a postal worker, but postal workers continue to deliver a vital public service. They are through their Union willing to negotiate reforms but are not prepared to be bullied and bullying is what they are getting.

The national agreement that resolved the 2007 dispute stipulates the continuing provision of reasonable local earnings levels and that to assist development of a fourth Phase of Royal Mail modernisation, consultation and negotiation will take place. Management are not currently complying. See a postal worker's view here.

Here is what Caroline Lucas said recently in a letter to the Communication Workers Union: "By removing profitable parts of the business for the benefit of speculators and investors, the Government has created an environment in which the interests of the population of the UK as a whole have been ill-served, none more so than your members. It is shameful that a Labour Government should have played such a role in the privatisation of public services, and in a way which has increased marginalisation and inequalities in terms of access to services. It is especially concerning that this Labour Government is not content with overseeing the dismantling of this vital service, but now appears to be colluding with Royal Mail management to undermine the rights of the Union and its representatives, and condoning the side-lining of the CWU in working towards the completion of the agreement from the last period of industrial action."

See more of Green party leader Caroline Lucas comment here.