Union boss meets British PM
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes raised Royal Mail privatisation when he joined a delegation of trade union leaders meeting prime minister David Cameron in 10 Downing Street. Yesterday’s (Monday) meeting, which was the first for 25 years with a Conservative prime minister, was lead by Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Brendan Barber, who said: “We made clear to the prime minister our strong view that the spending cuts would both be socially divisive and economically dangerous.”
The issue of government cuts and job losses was discussed at length, as was the issue of pensions, in particular the change from RPI to CPI index linking. “The government seemed unclear what they were saying on the pensions issue at points”, said Hayes.
The general secretary took the opportunity to raise the privatisation of Royal Mail directly with the prime minister. “I referred to media concern from the last two days about losing the Queen’s head from stamps”, said Hayes, “and David Cameron (pictured) said he’d seen the stories. Oliver Letwin responded by saying that there was plenty of time in the legislative process to resolve those issues.”
Hayes also spoke to the prime minister about the problems and uncertainty facing the universal service and post office network in the Postal Services Bill, but met the same answer from the cabinet office minister.
“Towards the end of the meeting, David Cameron suggested that we hold these meetings two or three times a year,” said Hayes.
Overall, Hayes felt the impression given by the Prime Minster was “very polished” through the meeting, which lasted over an hour.
