As a Union, we have seen a year of strikes with great member enthusiasm and a lot of activity in general.

With two magnificent votes for industrial action, not only did almost every unit in Britain have its members out, but there was also untold activity on the picket lines combined with a good deal of public support.

The sympathy and support we have from the public is related to the service to the community that we give each day.  This is across the various countries we cover and the remotest regions of Britain.  We deliver to many areas that most if not all parcel companies will not cover on a regular day to day basis.  The respect and trust we have from the public contributes to this support and all of these factors put us in a good position when we are forced to have a fight with the employer.

Privatisation, Major Cause of Problems

This does not mean that we haven’t had our fair share of problems over the past ten years.  This has mainly been down to privatisation, with profits being drained from the more lucrative parts of the service we give.  Any business has its more profitable areas and its less profitable ones, but it is short-term profit that now always comes first, rather than the long-term interests of the business or the customer.

If Deal is Agreed, Union Involvement in Changes will be Absolutely Essential

The union leadership has reached a deal.  While most of the things we did not like have been removed, there are some points that are more controversial.  If the deal is agreed, we will need to ensure that any changes work to the long-term benefit of our members because we need the job and the service to be a career, with fair and good working conditions and any changes must work for us.

Most members will welcome the deal if the union is able to play a role that has a genuinely collaborative approach.  We have made many changes before and moved forward, but it is always vital that such changes are implemented by union negotiation and agreement.  This will need time, diligence and careful implementation.

Long Term Future Will Depend on Public Ownership

However, privatisation will still be a problem that we face in the long run, and it will only be public ownership that has any chance of giving Royal Mail a long-term, secure future.

Privatisation was something that the CWU campaigned and fought against for many years, but public ownership will still need to be a vital aim of the CWU.  We cannot give up on that policy.  It is the only way to avoid a massive amount of money haemorrhaging out of Royal Mail into the pockets of large shareholders.

A Labour Government Committed to Public Ownership Will be Vital to the Future

The only possibility of achieving public ownership will be through a Labour government.

A publicly owned Royal Mail was the policy of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership in both the 2017 and the 2019 election campaigns, but unfortunately this policy was lost once the 2019 General Election was lost.

The 2019 loss was largely because Labour had become distracted by telling people that it would overturn the 2016 referendum to leave the EU.  The leadership was under enormous pressure to do this, with pressure being exerted by both the right wing of the party as well as the liberal so called left of the party.

Both of these wings were and still are dominated by the urban middle class.  They have little in common with many traditional Labour areas where most working people had voted in 2016 to leave the EU.  It was an inevitable car crash waiting to happen when it came to the 2019 General Election, and it meant that defeat was inevitable.

Even a Starmer Labour Government Cannot Escape the Issue of Public Ownership

Now that we have the Keir Starmer leadership, we are not expecting the re-nationalisation of Royal Mail to be a policy, but as with our water and energy companies that clearly exist to make money rather than provide a decent and cost-effective service to the community, these issues will not go away.  This is because the private ownership of these companies will continue to cause problems for the public at large, and if there is a Labour Government it will not be able to escape these problems no matter how much they hope to avoid them.

CWU Must Use its Influence in the Labour Party

The CWU is affiliated to the Labour Party nationally, and normally donates a significant amount of funding for Labour.  Each union branch can have up to six delegates to a Constituency Labour Party if it is affiliated to it and affiliated union members can play a very productive role in influencing new candidates and sitting Labour MPs in order to ensure that future Labour MPs are supportive of us as a trade union not only when it comes to strikes but whenever there are any campaigns to defend our jobs and living standards, not just in Royal Mail, of course, but for all workers.

We clearly have the members capable of doing this, as shown by the activity of the second half of 2022, if they put their minds to it.  Fifteen thousand of our members were in Parliament Square and thousands were prepared to stand on picket lines on rainy days.  This shows our members willingness and strength to fight, and we need to make the best use of this to get the policies we need to create a decent future.

Cllr Lee Waker – Village Ward Councillor – East London Postal Branch Political Officer