Postal Workers: From Determined Struggle — to Disorientation

The last fifteen years has seen the selling off of state property to place it in the private sector. Beside being an important ideological position of “rolling back the frontiers of the state”, it has had the other important aspect of masking the declining profitability of industry – if money can’t be made by making products any more, then make it by selling water instead!

After most of the nationalised industries have been disposed of by the Tory Government, the last ones under state control are being considered for privatisation. The Government is now down to the most politically sensitive ones, which are all that are left. What’s left of the coal industry is now up for grabs, mines are due to be sold off, when the Government can get away with it. Previously closed mines are due to be opened up, along with new open-cast mines, to provide profitable operations for private investment. The concern for nationally produced coal, instead of imports, would find an identical echo in the supposedly left-wing calls by Scargill for a similar defence of the national coal industry.

Preparations for the privatisation of the railways are resulting in bizarre forms of reorganisation-franchising of train services, selling off of stations and the devolving of railway tracks and signalling system into a separate Rail Track Authority.

Suggestions had been made on a number of occasions about selling off of the Post Office, to get it out of «the evil hands of the state». Investment in this organisation has been curbed because it forms part of the borrowing of the public sector, so productivity tends to be the result of increasing the burden of work by the existing work-force. It forms part of the lead up to privatisation, by showing that the postal industry can be made profitable and would make a suitable home for private investment.

Mechanical sorting has long been a feature of the Post Office, but it is still a highly labour intensive organisation. And so across the country, by the requirements of regional and local management targets, a series of attacks against the Postal Workers has been taking place. The most significant one took place in Liverpool in April. For some time the pressure had been on the sorting workers, particularly on the night shift. It had been traditional that as long as the work was done within the time required management weren’t too bothered. But in the present climate of boosting productivity, which means the reduction of the labour required, such ’gains’ can only be made by the loss of workers employed. The ’flash-point’ occurred when a worker supposedly had an ’unofficial tea break’, apparently going to get a cup of tea from a machine to drink it while at work. There must have already been conflict going on, which led to this worker being suspended. There were claims and counter-claims, management saying that the worker had swung a punch, the worker saying that the manager had made fun of a speech impediment. And so, the workers and bosses were locked into conflict for six days.

The Union of Communication Workers was brought in to negotiate and pacify the workers. But the postal workers in the Central Sorting Office would not put up with their fellow worker being suspended. Very quickly the delivery staff were out, involving 2,500 workers in all. They stood firmly for nearly a week against the various attempts of the bosses to break them. Straight away the Royal Mail went to the High Court for an injunction against the union because of the unofficial strike. The mass meeting of strikers refused to be intimidated. Then the local newspapers tried to get in on the act by inciting businesses who may have lost because of the strike, to sue the union for damages. The strikers were not impressed by this threat either, voting by an overwhelming majority to stay out. The union’s General Secretary sent two letters demanding a return to work because of the dangers of fines and damages, this didn’t impress the strikers either. They weren’t going back until the suspension of their fellow worker was lifted. The interesting attitude was that they wouldn’t be intimidated by the threats to the union’s funds. As most workers never see much of the union’s funds, why should they consider them ‘theirs’ anyway.

In the meantime, the Royal Mail bosses were trying everything they could to get the mail moved around in order to get it sorted by other offices. Sorting workers in Birkenhead and other smaller sorting offices declared that mail from Liverpool was ‘blacked’ that is they refused to cooperate in the breaking of the strike. Conscious of the provocative actions by RM management, other workers started to scrutinise what the bosses were doing, in moving mail around the system. Action had to be taken to pacify workers in Manchester to prevent a walk-out there.

The UCW were really getting worried at this point, not only was there a serious legal danger (funds could be seized by the Courts) but also it could easily become a regional strike. Another strike meeting was called where the danger to the union was explained. In a heated two hour strike meeting, a return to work was achieved only after assurances were given that the suspension of the worker was lifted. Although he was still going through the RM disciplinary procedure, the workers made it clear that if he was sacked, they would be out on strike again.

The determination behind this strike must surely have been the fact that the workers saw the attacks being made as applying to all of them. It was merely chance that meant that this or that worker was in the firing line. Tomorrow it could be them. The only way to prevent the collective type of strike is by the bosses inserting a divisive element into attacks against the work-force.

It was in this way that sections of workers where pitted against each other – as in Hilton Keynes at the end of June. In this case the emphasis was that extra work (especially overtime) was to go out to casual workers. The regular workers often depend upon overtime to make up their wages. It costs the employer more in the form over overtime, at least a third extra, or in the case of part-time staff, the normal rate of pay until they reach the full working week level, then overtime rates apply. But with casual workers, often the rates of pay are inferior, don’t take account of seniority rates, pension funds, etc. The marginal cost of work for casual staff is lower than that of the regular workers.

It is in this sort of situation that antagonism can arise between the regular workers and casual staff (taken on as and when needed) even though in many cases former postal workers are amongst the casuals. The failure of workers to unite, allowing themselves to be divided, means that the bosses can get away with their attacks. The suspicion and bitterness that can infect workers as a result of all these divisive stratagems gives the local bosses all the scope they need to further divide and demoralise the workers. It is exactly this sort of measure that the bosses need to prepare the ground for privatisation, a demoralised and fragmented work-force.

As the form in which privatisation will take has not been established, that is sale of part of it, all of the postal system or it being broken up into regional businesses, the bosses are obviously concerned about the fate of the enterprise. They are not the only ones. The UCW are also concerned about the fate of the postal system, preferring it to remain in state ownership, if not at least kept as one organisation. In this matter, as with so many others, the interests of the union bosses are identical to those of the bosses – the health and welfare of the enterprise concerned.

As the interests of all workers, whether in the post office or not, are the same as all other workers, class interests can only be expressed by bringing them together in unified economic organisations. Without class organisation individuals and sections of workers will be prey to attempts to divide them, turning worker against worker, sector against sector, industry against industry, all in the interests of our enemies – the capitalist class.