Left-winger will head postal union

Left-winger will head postal union
From THE HERALD, May 25th, 2001
BY Roy Rogers;Industry correspondent

CAPTION: JOHN KEGGIE: Lost despite being the clear favourite
POSTAL workers who have won a reputation as Britain’s most militant employees have lived up to it by electing a left-winger to succeed tough-talking Derek Hodgson as general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union.
Liverpudlian Billy Hayes has secured a decisive victory over John Keggie, deputy general secretary, who had been widely viewed as the clear favourite – only to be defeated apparently because of his leading role in negotiating a controversial restructuring of working practices.
The exercise, dubbed The Way Forward, took over four years of painstaking
negotiations, but was never really accepted by many senior postal workers
who
had been able to increase earnings through extensive overtime working,
Mr Hayes, 47, a national official representing “outdoor”, mainly delivery, grades – thousands of whom have been on unofficial strike this week – will take over in July.
He beat Mr Keggie, 41, a former Scottish divisional officer, by 36,047 votes to 32,279 in a result which is unlikely to help improve the Royal Mail’s abysmal industrial relations.
Mr Hayes joined the Post Office in Liverpool in 1974 and became secretary of the union’s Merseyside branch before being appointed a national officer nine years ago. He is a member of the Labour Party and supports the government, although he said yesterday: “There are issues where we cannot be afraid of criticising the government.”
He supports less centralisation of union structures, adding: “We need to lecture less and hear more about the real impact of management’s policies. Stirring up apathy is not an option.”
At 41, Mr Keggie, who continues as deputy general secretary, is young enough to get another tilt at the top job.
Meanwhile, work was beginning last night on clearing a huge backlog of almost 50 million letters after postal workers accepted a deal to end a dispute which sparked wildcat strikes across England and Wales.
Post boxes in some cities remained sealed amid estimates that it could take up to two weeks to deliver all the mail held up by the industrial action.
Around 15,000 workers joined the unofficial walkouts in several regions, including London, the north-west, the north-west, and Kent, paralysing 19 mail centres and 72 delivery offices.
Fresh walkouts overnight sparked fears of the first national strike since 1996.
However, a peace deal thrashed out between officials of the union and the Royal Mail was accepted by the Watford workers.
Scottish postal workers, traditionally among the most militant, did not get involved.
As revealed in The Herald a week ago, Martin Stanley, the new PostComm regulator, has warned postal workers and management that, unless they modernise their chaotic industrial relations, much work and many jobs could be lost to private competition.
Glasgow and Edinburgh were alluded to as possible cities that could see their postal deliveries opened up to private competition.