![]() The CWU is trumpeting its “groundbreaking” deal where the first 20 percent of profits will supposedly go to CWU members. Such committees will provide the means for workers to debate, plan and organise a fightback against the management/union bureaucrat conspiracy, both in the lead up to the ballot and the political and industrial battle that will be necessary in the weeks and months ahead. ![]() That is why in taking forward the campaign for a No vote it is essential to build rank-and-file committees at every depot and workplace. It cements a privileged role for CWU officials who will help lead a never-ending process of workplace revisions via “joint recovery and transformation boards” and the “Joint Working Group” pledged to drive workplace change at every level, enforcing brutal exploitation. The agreement takes corporatism to new levels. It is a process common to trade unions throughout the world. Corporatism means the growing together of the union bureaucracy and its structures with those of management. That Ward describes this as a “win” reflects the corporatist transformation of the union. This explains the scale of attacks, including plans for a “24/7 network, including Sundays”, the introduction of “pay per parcel” and the intense monitoring of workers’ movements via PDAs and performance management. This is a root and branch restructuring of Royal Mail, creating a “flexible” low-wage workforce to compete with global logistics giants including Amazon, UPS and Evri. The intent is to utilise the new parcel hubs, the Direct Parcel Routes and Parcelforce depots as a single, synergised parcels network covering the entirety of the UK.” The agreement states, “Historically Royal Mail has operated two networks (Parcelforce and Royal Mail Core) and two sets of systems… Royal Mail and the CWU agree in principle to the creation of a Single Parcel Network as a strategic ambition. This market failure and shambles is used to insist that postal workers must foot the bill!Īt the heart of the agreement is the “strategic vision” of creating a single parcel network to compete with the likes of Amazon. It cites highly distorted statistics on declining letter and parcel volumes, and projected losses of £450 million this financial year. The agreement is framed as a “business recovery plan”. Page one states, “RMG and CWU recognise the company now faces the most serious financial, market and economic conditions in its history and the only way to secure the future is by delivering agreed change at pace – in a way that takes the workforce with us and aligns the interests of employees, customers and all stakeholders.”īehind talk of a “common interest” and “alignment” between the company and workers, the CWU and RMG have come together to ensure that postal workers’ jobs, health and livelihoods will be sacrificed for the benefit of shareholders. The agreement drawn up by Royal Mail executives and CWU bureaucrats is a “resolution” that protects their partnership against the workforce. As far as workers are concerned, this is a barefaced lie. The first sentence of the agreement claims it “provides a resolution to all the issues arising from the long running dispute”. Nothing could more clearly expose the real dividing line in this eight-month dispute than CWU General Secretary Dave Ward’s insistence, backed by the union’s Postal Executive, that it is a “groundbreaking deal” that “moves us forward”. This time, massive job losses, a bonfire of terms and conditions, market-driven “restructuring” and the mass victimisation and firing of strikers, is being enforced by the union itself. The "RMG/CWU business recovery, transformation and growth agreement"
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