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Postal workers in the front line

The agreement reached between Communication Workers Union leaders and Royal Mail management is a temporary truce in a struggle about fundamental issues and principles to do with public services. Spontaneous walk-outs by 20,000 postal workers may have stayed the hand of management for the moment but Royal Mail bosses are determined to “modernise” the service at the expense of staff conditions and jobs.

While the post service nominally remains state-owned, it is driven by commercial considerations of profit and loss. This is thanks to the New Labour government, which imposed these conditions as part of their drive to make the whole economy “competitive” and subject to market forces.

This is also the agenda of the European Union, which is a vehicle for the interests of the major communication corporations. The EU is forcing postal markets to open up to private competition, adding to pressure on the British post service.

As a result, the dispute has at its heart the question of whether services are run for the benefit of the capitalist market economy or in the general public interest on a not-for-profit basis. The CWU leaders have so far failed to make this clear and develop a strategy in response.

That is one factor behind the recent decision of the membership to vote narrowly against a strike over pay. In the end, the major issue they face  is about jobs and working conditions, where the employer plans to sack thousands and impose harsh “flexible” practices.

There is no simple, negotiated trade-union type of solution to hand in these circumstances. There are profound political and economic challenges which the CWU cannot meet on its own or simply through the strike weapon, especially where the membership is left to walk out while the leaders hide behind Tory/New Labour anti-union legislation.

Postal workers are going through an experience which firefighters endured earlier this year. Do the interests of the community come before balance sheets and privatisation? The Fire Brigades Union leaders concocted a half-baked deal which opened the door to cuts. Now they are being provoked back into action by employers who are holding back on an agreed pay rise. The break-up of the National Health Service through the imposition of “foundation” hospitals will soon confront Unison and other unions. What are they going to do about it, other than make angry speeches?  

An opportunity exists for a number of unions like the CWU, the FBU and Unison to join forces against the market economy and the corporations who are waiting to pounce on public sector services. Any strategy limited to putting pressure on New Labour is doomed, as the FBU found out. If the so-called “awkward squad” of union leaders are really serious about opposing the government, they have to start a campaign immediately for an alternative to New Labour. They should suspend financial payments to New Labour pending the creation of a new party which aims to create alternatives to the market economy.

There is tremendous opposition to the policies of the Blair government, whether on the invasion of Iraq, privatisation of services and its role as the agency for big business in Britain. The CWU leaders have the chance to rally these forces beyond protest and beyond New Labour.

Movement for a Socialist Future
4 November 2003