Private post likely for Edinburgh : Unofficial strikes make capital choice for initial deregulation
FEARS that postal deliveries will be thrown open to private operators, with Edinburgh among the first areas facing deregulation, are behind a savage attack on the new postal regulator by outgoing union leader Derek Hodgson.
If realised, fears of creeping privatisation are likely to spark
widespread strike action among Britain’s most militant workforce.
The tough-talking general secretary of the Communications Workers
Union (CWU) has called on Steven Byers, trade and industry
secretary, to bring PostComm ‘to heel’.
In the CWU submission to government on postal licensing Hodgson
stressed the regulator was supposed to be a watch-dog for customers,
but was acting ‘more like a rottweiler savaging the postal
industry’.
Hodgson is particularly angry at PostComm officials for
‘playing at politics’ by ‘leaking personal opinions in the press,
assuming powers they were never meant to have and treating the
consultative process like an irrelevant aside’.
Graham Corbett, PostComm chairman, has let it be known that he
expects to sanction’serious’ competition for postal services by the autumn and licence four or five operators to deliver bulk mail between cities such as
London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In addition
there will be many licences for local mail deliveries.
Hodgson is furious that the regulator wants unrestricted and
unfettered powers which would enable it to direct the Post Office to
do almost anything without any appeal process.
‘They also want to be able to block all price increases proposed by
the Post Office, which is counter to the legislation offering the
business commerc-ial freedom,’ he complains.
The union also believes that the proposals conflict with European
Commission and Parliament decisions to introduce competition in ‘a controlled and gradual manner’.
‘That is why I am asking the industry minister to explain to the
regulators in straightforward terms that they are acting outside
their remit.’
‘If they achieve the draconian powers they seek, the Post Office
will lose any possibility of securing an overseas partner,’ said
Hodgson, adding that ‘these irresponsible people will, if they go
unchecked, preside over the demise of an industry they do not
understand and to which they have no loyalty.’
A spokesman for the regulator ‘welcomed’ the CWU sub-mission which,
he said, would be given full consideration along with all others.
The Post Office will publish its submission soon. Meanwhile, the Royal Mail continues to be plagued by un-official strikes with some 30,000 days lost since October, half of them in the Edinburgh area, which is therefore seen as a prime target for early de-regulation moves by PostComm.
Hodgson is due to bow out at the CWU’s annual conference in June and
an election to succeed him is already underway, with deputy general
secretary John Keggie seen as favourite.
A former shipyard worker, Keggie, 41, was blamed for much of the
militancy among Edinburgh postal workers in the early 90s when he
was Edinburgh-based Scottish divisional officer of the union.
Copyright 2001 The Herald (United Kingdom).
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – FT McCarthy.
THE HERALD (UNITED KINGDOM), 05th March 2001
