Post Office strike will not deliver

Bill Jacobs
BRITAIN'S posties are walking straight into a trap. They believe that by threatening a strike over plans to part-privatise the industry and end the Royal Mail's monopoly on delivering letters, they can force our newly-elected Labour ministers to think again. The Communication Workers' Union hopes their former leader turned Trade and Industry Minister Alan Johnson will back down from confrontation with his old members. On both counts they are wrong – and they are playing into ministerial hands. The Government is not spoiling for a fight but is more than ready for one if necessary to modernise a sector where old-fashioned industrial relations warfare is still the norm and is holding back business. One ministerial source says: "We won't be bullied.'' As recent postal strikes in Scotland, London and the north-west of England have shown, militancy remains a force. Even when the union is trying to restrain its workforce, it is ready to mount the kind of "wildcat'' unofficial action that Margaret Thatcher claimed to have consigned to history.
Despite the Post Office's new name, Consignia, and flashy logo, the problems
show little sign of receding. Indeed the election of left-winger Billy Hayes as general secretary of the CWU over the more moderate deputy, Edinburgh's John Keggie, hints at worse trouble to come. The recent decision at the 180,000-strong union's conference in Bournemouth to take industrial action if the changes go ahead, confirms the worst fears of the Government and management. In the year to February, the Post Office lost more than 62,000 days through more than 350 strikes UK-wide. Trade and industry ministers are furious at both workers and management. Privately, they believe the operation is one of the last remaining examples of what was worst about the 1960s and 1970s. ONE says: "It's a typical case of a poor management and an old-fashioned, dinosaur union. In a sense they deserve each other – but the customer deserves neither.'' And that is why they are determined to act. The management needs to buck up its ideas or someone else will be brought in. Ministers don't accept that only a wholly-owned public industry with a letter monopoly can deliver the service needed. One exasperated Labour strategist says: "It would be all right if they were delivering a good service, but they are not. Something needs to be
done.'' The examples, even in the last year, are legion. More than five million
items of mail in Scotland were held up after a dispute in Glasgow over the
light punishment of a manager found guilty of sexually harassing a young
female worker. More than 5000 postal workers in Edinburgh and throughout Strathclyde walked out for three days in March. A similar minor spat in Watford in May hit 50 million letters across England, affecting 19 mail sorting centres and 72 delivery offices as far afield as Newcastle, Manchester, Kent and London. To prove the ministers' point about Post Office management, more than
300 of the strikes over the last 12 months – 90 per cent – were unofficial,
without ballots. They were therefore illegal, but no officials or strikers
were sacked or severely punished. In this atmosphere Tony Blair and his Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt believe the public will be behind them if they take on the CWU. One senior figure in the Government explains: "This is about consumers. "Hundreds of thousands of trade unionists depend on the post for a whole range of things. "Thousand of businesses – employing those very same trade union colleagues of the postal workers – also depend on the mail. They take a very dim view of this type of industrial action.'' But last week's CWU conference seemed intent on ignoring the signs, especially with their left-wing chief set to take the reins next month. Mr Hayes is clearly intent on confrontation – as are his members. The resolution passed by the 1200 delegates at Bournemouth promises to defend employees' rights and working conditions "by all means necessary, including the use of industrial action''. And it warns Consignia of its "total opposition to any form of privatisation of any of the businesses within Consignia or any weakening of the current monopoly provisions''. IT claims the firm wants to set up "cut-price, non-union services'' in cities and contract out sorting and delivery of letters to computer firms and foreign rivals. Mr Keggie defended the call to arms, saying: "If managers are speculating about the future of the industry, we are entitled to speculate how to respond to it. We are not being irresponsible but have to defend the industry. Our members are not militant, but they are extremely concerned and worried about the future.'' The union is counting on a left-wing Labour backlash in Parliament and a grass-roots party rebellion to back its cause if it does come to a national strike. But that cuts little ice with Labour's high command. They believe if the CWU opts for confrontation, it makes the case for breaking up the monopoly. One minister sums up the Government position: "We would look much better on the union if they got together with the management and worked on a plan to improve the postal service. "But they're not doing it and never have done it. Looking towards
strike action to protect their jobs and privileges just makes our case. "We have no ideological problem with using the private sector to
deliver a better service. "This dispute underpins what New Labour is all about.'' And that suggests that Mr Hayes, Mr Keggie and their union members are
in for a pretty rough time.