Union will fight new UK privatisation plans

The UK-based Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said it will fight plans by the new coalition government to partially privatise Royal Mail. The union labelled plans “old politics” and went on to say that there is no public mandate for the move which would put post offices at risk.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: “The coalition government has read this wrong. Royal Mail is a public sector success story, making hundreds of millions of pounds in profit while modernising and delivering first class services to every residential and business address in the UK.

“Privatising public services is deeply unpopular. Breaking up Royal Mail Group and flogging parts to private companies will damage services and lead to price hikes for customers. It’s old politics dressed up in new language.

“The commitments given on post offices are misleading and disingenuous. Breaking the link with Royal Mail could take valuable business away from the Post Office while leading to greater costs for Royal Mail. The post office network is an expensive but vital community service but today’s proposals place the Post Office in grave danger of further waves of closures.

“We will fight these proposals. There’s no mandate from the public to privatise Britain’s postal services, it’s not supported by the public and it’s not supported by postal workers.”