Like watching a car speeding headfirst at 90mph towards stationary traffic ahead, so we witness Post Officers voting to strike this Christmas.   An act testament to corporate suicide! 

Dave Ward, Deputy Leader of the CWU, (Communications Workers Union), the man elected to protect Post Office members will precide over the insane position of the post office workers committing a very public suicide.  As workers vote to strike, the sad truth is that their actions threaten the future of the post office, millions of jobs and their Union leadership don’t get the gravity of the action they prescribe.

As companies, small business, individuals fight o overthrow the effects of the toughest recession since the 1930′s, the actions of Post Office workers act as a kick in the teeth of the man & woman on the street.  Many businesses, small, medium and large are depending on Christmas sales boosting revenues enough to keep their business solvent.  Note I say solvent, not making profits, just staying afloat. 

Strike action this Christmas will be the tipping point for many busineeses and individuals to investigate alternative ways to get their deliveries out.  A large proportion may decide never to return their business to the Royal Mail.  Rival delivery operators will rightfully be rubbing their hands in glee.  A large scale move away from the Royal Mail will end the critical mass the Post Office depends on, hence ending the viability of the Royal Mail.  The very jobs a Trade Union seeks to protect will be undermined and lost to an act of madness.

Post Office workers need to search their soul.  Do they really think that in the midst of a devastating recession, at a time which brings some much needed relief and joy to the population, (aka Christmas), that they will win public support.  There is more chance of Sooty the Silent Bear winning the singing competition the ‘X Factor’ or Roland Rat dancing to victory in ’Strictly Come Dancing’.  Recent National Post Office strikes have shown that workers quickly return to work as their pay becomes the priority as their wallets empty and their families have less food on the table and recent history shows they win little concessions for their efforts.

Of course the Royal Mail needs to be modernised.  The whole organisation is in a dire mess, with a pensions deficit throttling its stability, (estimated to be £10 billion in deficit).  But strike action is not the answer.  We live in a digital age where email and instant communication is a priority.  But many businesses still depend on traditional post like Ebay and Amazon.  Both are now reviewing the best methods to get their goods out at Xmas. The Post Office could have a very healthy future but until the industrial militancy to any modernising moves is ended, the Post Office will sink like the Titanic.

Dave Ward, see the light, look after your workers, dont allow the biggest corporate suicide to take place. 

Remember Stretch Armstrong?  A real blast from the past….but Stretch and Gordon Brown have a lot in common, both give plastic performances, neither can smile and both are pliable and can be shaped in different directions…including in U Shapes….!!!

We seem to be in U-Turn city this week……

Central Labour Party Policy 1…scrapped…….The National ID Card Scheme

So yesterday we were told by the new Home Secretary Alan Johnson that compulsory ID Cards were to be scrapped.  Remember how Jacqui Smith said that a National ID Card Scheme was essential in the fight against serious crime and preventing terrorist atrocities in the UK.  Alan Johnson completely ignored this and said that ID cards would be beneficial for students proving their age in the pub…..quite a difference.  That’s a big ideological jump…ID cards prevent terrorism to ID Cards get you a pint in the pub!  Derisory yes…laughable..totally!

So the National ID Card Scheme……which would have cost £4.9bn is now dead….on a compulsory basis.  People can voluntarily request them…which if noone does means the scheme is then completly dead.  Well, it’s dead then!

So Central Labour Party Policy 2…scrapped…….Post Office Privatisation

Today, Lord Mandelson, fresh from complaining that Post Office Privatisation was being ‘jostled’ by a busy legislative agenda, went one step further and effectively killed off Post Office Privatisation before the election.  Mandelson charmed the House of Lords stating:  ”Market conditions have made it impossible to conclude the process to identify a partner on terms that would give market value to the taxpayer.”  The government would look at the issue again “when market conditions have changed”, he added.  (That means after the election!).

Let’s say that Mandelson was economical with the truth.  Brown & Mandy knew that there was a real chance this legislation could have been defeated by….Labour backbenchers.  Brown needed the support of Tories to get this through.  Given recent leadership issues he could not stir this issue up. Around 180 Labour MPs had signed a motion calling on the government to keep Royal Mail in public ownership.  This was not a battle Brown needed.

2 massive U-Turns in 2 days….this is added to the moving away from targets in schools, the introduction of private tutors into schools and in the health service, the move towards private enterprise with patients, faced with slow NHS service being able to go for Private Care, funded by the state.

So many U-turns that it is hard to keep up.

No authority, no vision, no direction……..what dismal days Brown is leading his Party in.

The Prince of Darkness…..Peter Pan!

Well well, what do we have here?  Peter Mandelson announced today that Post Office part Privatisation will have to be delayed because…..there is not enough room on the Government’s bustling legislative agenda.  That has to be the best joke Mandy has told in a long time. I love he uses the word that the legislation is being ‘jostled’.

Is this the Palace of Westminster that sees debates curtailed and MP’s kicking around, bored, with the lightest legislative agenda for years?

Let’s be honest.  Brown doesn’t have the support to get this legislation through because it is DEEPLY unpopular amongst his Labour backbench MP’s.  Brown’s MP’s will not support it.  This legislation will not see the light of day as it is officially in the long grass.  The next legislation presented to Parliament regarding the Post Office will be by the Tories after the next election.  Labour have bottled it.

Full credit to David Cameron for offering to ‘help Mandy’ by giving up an Opposition debate day for the bill to get a 2nd reading in the House.  Obviously, Brown won’t go for this but Cameron makes his point well.

Mandy stated that the timing of a deal to to recruit a minority strategic partner from the private sector into the Royal Mail had been “inevitably” affected by the “terrible financial shock” that has hit the markets.  But he said the finances of the Royal Mail were approaching crisis point and the future of the UK’s delivery service depended on a turnaround in Royal Mail’s business.  To back this up he stated:  ”In principle we remain entirely committed to the proposals that were first put forward by an independent review,” Lord Mandelsonsaid.  “(Royal Mail workers) have a pension fund which is facing a deficit of something in the region of £7bn to £8bn.

 So, if the Royal Mail is in crisis, no investor wants to buy into it, then surely this must make the Royal Mail a priority issue?  This story is full of Labour lies, Mandelson spin….and it is a shame that our great posties are being hung out to dry.

I remember Gordon Brown saw Post Office Part Privatisation as a virility test on his leadership….hmmmm that means your failed the test Gordon!

Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union (CMU)

Well here we go again.  Hot on the steps of the rampant Tube strikers, it seems like the Postal Workers want a day off…sorry…to protest against their pay, their conditions and plans for modernising…..add in some extra reasons yourself….like protesting that Ronaldo has gone to Real Madrid and that Susan Boyle may not perform on the Britain’s Got Talent live roadshow.  This is getting ridiculous and is a return to Britain’s dark industrial days.  Do union leaders never ever learn!  What will be interesting is what action the Government take.  Will they stand aside and just murmur condemnation?  Or will they get involved and seriously warn of the consequences of CMU demands to the Royal Mail and ultimately the very jobs that the CMU seeks to protect.

The walkout – the first of several threatened 24-hour strikes – will be held next Friday, (convienent for a nice long weekend!).  So the Union hopes that their strike action will scare the Government & Royal Mail to acceding to their demands!  It won’t!…never will…and again they will find that they will alienate public support and be lone voices striking in this recessionary climate.  This strike and future planned ones will bring havoc to mail deliveries, with letters taking up to five days to reach their destination, and will force hundreds of Post Office branches to close.  On top of that the strike will also delay payments on credit cards, loans, and water and power bills, leading to punishing charges for thousands of customers.  Post is already in decline, especially as businesses utilise hi tech methods of communication, especially email.

So what’s it all about?  Dave Ward & the CMU are pushing for the average postal worker’s salary to increase from £19,000 to £24,000 over the next five years. We have discussed salaries in a previous blog and you can make your own comparisons here!  But that’s a 27% increase!!!  27%!!! In a recession.  By their own demands they believe that a postal worker is more valauble to society than a paramedic, nurse or teacher! 

Quite sensibly Royal Mail Management say the increase – I have to say this again….a 27% pay rise – cannot be considered at a time when the organisation is facing stiff competition from private rivals.  This is a very true picture.  Interestingly, the CMU’s pay demands would cost the organisation £ 1bn.  Royal Mail bosses have offered staff  instead a 2.5% pay increase.  On top of this, there would be an £800 dividend payment from its Colleague Shares scheme and a 50% share in any savings above budget in an employee’s local unit.

Dave Ward’s response was: ”Royal Mail have been deliberately misleading the public on what this dispute is about. The Union has never asked for a 27% pay rise and we are not opposed in any shape or form to modernisation.  What Royal Mail is doing is not modernisation. The truth is they are intent on cutting services, cutting jobs and cutting pay.’

The Post Office is in a mess.  Whilst recent headline profits announced showed a doubling of annual profits to £321m, this masks a wider and deepening problem with the state-owned bureaucratic giant, highlighted by almost a £4bn increase in its pension deficit to £6.8bn.  While the headline profits are in the millions, the pensions deficit is in the billions and confirms that the Royal Mail remains in a precarious financial position.  This is frightening to see the pensions deficit has doubled this year and concurrently mail volumes are expected to fall by as much as 10% every year.  The Royal Mail needs urgent modernisation and fundamental reform.  Did you know that the Royal Mail had lost business, including an £8m contract with online retailer Amazon, because it had failed to modernise?  It cannot afford to lose such contracts.  Royal Mail needs to bring in private capital to reinvigorate an organisation in desperate need of cash and innovation to help it compete in a deregulated letters market.

Interestingly, Dave Ward was elected Deputy General Secretary as part of an aggressive anti-government ticket and is associated with a group of left-leaning union figures – the so-called “awkward squad”. (including Bob Crow…leader of the Tube strikers).  But unlike some union leaders, he has not argued for cutting ties with Labour, although the CWU has cut its donations to the party by half.

So Dave, for the sake of your members, get real, reconsider your Union’s action.  The Royal Mail is effectively insolvent because of the pensions deficit.  Striking will lose your members popularity, it will speed up plans for modernisation, companies will look at alternative ways of distributing their post…..and ultimately that will mean job losses of postal workers.  Is that really what the CMU wants.  Is that fair on postal workers.  Wake up and smell the coffee!