Site icon SKWAWKBOX

Royal Mail declares war on workforce and union while in meeting supposedly to negotiate

SKWAWKBOX (SW)

Company invites union negotiators to meeting – then holds conference call with wider management while meeting is underway announcing attack on workplace representation

Royal Mail, which has been making record profits while imposing a feeble two-percent pay increase on employees, has declared war on its workforce and their unions this morning and like many wars, it began with a sneak attack. As a tweet from the CWU union explains, Royal Mail management invited union negotiators to a meeting to discuss the industrial dispute and possible solutions – and then, while the meeting was ongoing, held a separate conference call with managers around the country informing them of unilateral changes to agreements, practices and even the structure for CWU members to access their union reps:

For the visually-impaired using read-aloud software: “Today the CWU leadership agreed to meet Royal Mail Group to open discussions on a route to a resolution to the current dispute. Your elected officials are in the room now, as we speak. Whilst they are in the room, Royal Mail Group have held a conference call with all managers and issued statements in workplaces across the UK. Amongst the headlines in their comms are: notice to be given on a range of national agreements; notice to be given on elements of agenda for growth (legal protections); notice to be given on IR Framework; a move from negotiations with your union to ‘consultation’; a new CWU reps structure. This is 1. An all out attack on your union. 2. The start of a move to ensure they can attack you at local level without any challenge. 3. The beginning of their plan to make Royal Mail Group a gig economy standard employer. And all of this has been issued whilst your representatives walked into the room in good faith to open talks. Sickening. We will of course get word from our representatives as soon as the ‘talks’ finish and no doubt communicate further today. For now, the best response everyone can give is to make it crystal clear to management that you will not be bullied and that you will be supporting strike action next week and beyond.

It seems that Royal Mail, emboldened by the Tories’ planned assault on workers’ rights and their unions – and, it must be said, the complete lack of solidarity shown with striking workers by Labour’s ‘leadership’ – intend all-out war against their workforce as the profit-driven ‘race to the bottom’ continues. The whole nation will suffer from this new direction in one way or many.

The CWU has asked for help getting the word out so that the public knows what is happening. Please share this far and wide.

Never in recent history has national, coordinated action across industries, sectors and societies by all people been more necessary.

SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.

Exit mobile version