Another piece about the postal workers' dispute, from a man who knows.


If your working life was being over-managed to the point of ruining the job,
And you were being threatened with the sack,
And then they wanted to steal your pension,
Wouldn’t you fight back too?
Support the Postal Workers
Don’t moan – ORGANIZE

Another day, another lie from Royal Mail! Remember the lie that posties had demanded a 27% pay rise? Leighton and Crozier kept on pushing that one in the media until asked for proof and couldn’t produce it.What about the lie that posties were 40% underworked and 25% overpaid? That one was from Adam Crozier who receives a basic salary of £500,000 a year with a £370,000 bonus for 2007 to go with the £3,000,000 in bonus payments he’s already pocketed. His accomplice Allan Leighton works two days a week for Royal Mail and is paid a basic £200,000 per year. Then there is the lie that Royal Mail is losing work to competitors. They ARE losing contracts because the Government have given incentives competitors to undercut Royal Mail, and this has been encouraged by Leighton and Crozier, but there is more work than ever for postal workers as the competitors use Royal Mail to deliver their mail. Royal Mail denied they were facing a pension shortfall because they had ceased paying contributions for years. The day after issuing denials in the national press Royal Mail were forced to backtrack when presented with a leaked secret document which showed they have plans to prevent new employees joining the pension scheme and that existing employees will have to work beyond retirement age to make up the shortfall. How about the one where posties are opposed to modernisation? Modernisation has been taking place for generations within Royal Mail and has always been embraced by the work force. Code sorting machines, stamping and franking machines, packet sorting machines, automatic letter facing machines, What staff are opposed to is wholesale job cuts without consultation and enforced redundancies. Another lie nailed! Leighton and Crozier say changes must take place in order to improve standards. With recently released figures of 95% of first class mail being delivered the day after posting, this is another lie. Royal Mail is the most efficient postal service in Europe and has been for decades. Had Leighton and Crozier had experience of working for Royal Mail as opposed to turning up for the occasional meeting, they would know than on any day the average delivery will have 5% of mail which cannot be delivered because it is incorrectly addressed, the intended recipient has moved away or insufficient postage has been paid. Even so, a rise in standards from 87% nationally to 95% without the job cuts and office closures proposed by Leighton and Crozier shows they are really priming the mail service for privatisation aided and abetted by the Labour Government. Apart from this, Leighton and Crozier are pushing through later start times which means customers will receive their mail later in the day and are trying to bring in one collection per day from pillar boxes. We fail to see how this will improve the service, but since we know that service to the customer is way behind making profits for the fat cat shareholders waiting to pounce, we aren’t too surprised. The Communication Workers Union think negotiation with these ‘here today – gone tomorrow’ venture capitalists will lead to a happy ending. We in the Industrial Workers of the World aren’t fooled. The lessons of bus deregulation and Rail privatisation, the introduction of ‘the market’ into education and the health service are not lost on us. We know if these brigands get their way, the postal service will deteriorate as surely as any other service the privateers have got their greedy hands on. Fight back now!