24.10.2007

Fight for the right to know

Benjamin Klein calls for postal workers to reject the settlement with Royal Mail and for an end to bureaucratic secrecy

Unfortunately, the course of events in the Royal Mail dispute have been all too predictable. Instead of the CWU looking to give support to the wildcat strikes in Liverpool and West Yorkshire and spreading them throughout Royal Mail, strikers were encouraged to return to work. Meanwhile, the union conducted secret negotiations and eventually came to an agreement. An agreement which quite clearly sells the membership well short.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail, praised the "role played by Brendan Barber and the TUC" in thrashing out this deal, which the CWU believe settles "all areas of the dispute" (Morning Star October 23). These statements should set alarm bells ringing for any working class activist, as Crozier, with the backing of the Brown government, is set on squeezing postal workers' conditions and axing 40,000 jobs in the name of 'efficiency' and 'modernisation' - ideologically loaded terms used in the interests of capital, not workers.

What has been agreed (with five out of 14 executive members voting against) is, in essence, exactly the same as what was on offer a week earlier, neatly packaged with a few vacuous formulations to make it slightly more palatable. Naturally, efforts are being made to portray it as a real step forward, but many postal workers see through the spin and are outraged at what the executive has signed up to.

Much is made of the 6.9% pay increase over two years, but this actually translates into 2.5% a year, with the extra 1.5% only being introduced if and when working 'flexibility' has been introduced - ie, at the cost of thousands of jobs, with those still employed being obliged to change their working hours in accordance with management requirements. Even with this flexibility 'bonus' the agreement could mean a pay cut allowing for inflation.

It was actually the issue of working flexibility that was at the heart of the dispute, and the proposed changes would ensure that postal workers, who tend to compensate for their low basic pay with long hours of overtime, are forced to vary their working hours and report to a different office at short notice. True, the lump sum of £175 has been raised to £400, but again this is contingent upon management's proposals for 'reform'.

Although the right to retire at 60 for current workers seems to have been maintained (at least until 2010), this 'victory' will drive a wedge between the existing workforce and those looking to work for Royal Mail in the future - other public sector unions accepted the same divisive arrangement last year. The leadership has also left the door open for the slashing of pensions, with the final salary scheme replaced by a 'similar benefits' scheme.

John Hutton, secretary of state for business, has made much of the "economic damage" done to Royal Mail and how it must now "work flat out to restore its reputation" through management and the union finding "a sensible way to put this behind them and get on with the job". It is therefore clear that political pressure will be ratcheted up to ensure the marginalisation of the 'no' campaign that is being organised amongst the rank and file. It is crucial that this campaign not only directly mobilises against the deal, but also addresses the way in which the union approaches negotiation with management.

It is a disgrace that negotiations took place behind the backs of the workers, forcing them to rely on rumours and leaks rather than being able to follow the arguments on the executive and grasping the political differences. There should, of course, be full information about exactly what has happened since last Tuesday, who represented what position, who voted how, and so forth.

If the executive is there to represent the membership, then it must be open and accountable to the rank and file. What the 'vow of silence' did was to demobilise and spread confusion amongst the membership.

The union's website reporting of the dispute consisted of the barest outline of the most banal information - "talks between the union and Royal Mail were held today at the TUC. Those talks have continued into this evening and will continue tomorrow." A few days later, the next crumb would appear.

The CWU chair is Jayne Loftus, a member of the Socialist Workers Party. While Socialist Worker quite correctly called on workers to "reject the deal" and "keep fighting until we win", it did not call on comrade Loftus to defy the executive's vow of silence and tell its readers, CWU members and the class as a whole what was going on. Consciously or otherwise, this objectively makes the SWP complicit in the bureaucracy's sell-out.

Frankly, if the CPGB had members on the CWU executive upholding bureaucratic solidarity against the interests of rank and file union members, then we would expel them from our ranks.

CWU membership should not only reject the deal but fight for the right to know. That is the only way to hold its representatives to account.