"We Had Royal Mail, and We Let It Go"… But Not This Time

A London newspaper carried a glib explanation of the UK postal workers' series of strikes that jumped off this month: "The strike was called after [the union] backed a walkout over modernisation. They fear mechanised sorting of post rounds will lead to job losses."

In fact, "walk sequencing machines" that automatically sort the work have already been introduced.

So what's really going on?

The postal workers' dispute is complicated, but the issues driving the recent flurry of work stoppages—77,000 mail carriers have called another one for October 31—are familiar to workers everywhere.

• Low pay: Postal workers in Britain earn an average of £380 a week (about $500) and badly need the opportunities for overtime and working on rest-days now being unilaterally withdrawn by management.

• Work intensification: Since the 2007 strike Royal Mail (postal service) management has imposed "unagreed and unachievable”workloads, according to a London rep from the Communication Workers' Union.

• Job loss: Since 2004, following deregulation of the postal “market,” over 60,000 jobs have gone, leaving those remaining working harder and harder.

• Bullying and intimidation: When workers find they are unable to meet workloads, says the London rep, "they are then bullied, intimidated, threatened and in a lot of cases taken off pay."

In 2007, postal workers took national strike action over similar issues, which were resolved by an agreement that cut a significant number of jobs. In return workers were promised a four-day week without loss of pay. Yet in the ensuing two years Royal Mail management has simply broken this agreement, "reverting" workers, particularly in London, back to five-day weeks without consultation.

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It gets worse. Historically, postal workers in Britain have a fine record of resisting management's wiles. In 1996, activists in London played a key role in beating back “teamworking,” roundly defeating Royal Mail on the issue, which would have resulted in cutting the numbers of workers on delivery routes, or "rounds." But now the kind of work overload disguised within teamworking is back. Royal Mail calls it "absorption," meaning, according to a London representative, "You've got to take on someone else's round at no extra pay--if someone can't do their round for whatever reason, their work is just 'absorbed' into yours."

Not only has this massively increased the burdens on postal workers, it has also led to chaos in the sorting offices, as mail piles up. Although postal workers' guerrilla action over the summer--local one-day strikes in London and other areas--was blamed for the backlog, in fact absorption was hitting RM harder than any of the strikes.

DEREGULATION

So what's causing Royal Mail’s aggression, and what is the union doing about it?

Deregulation is forcing Royal Mail to struggle with a far from level playing field, as monsters like TNT, Europe’s second-biggest parcel company, cream off major contracts and leave Royal Mail with what is poetically known as the "final mile"--the local delivery which only RM is in a position to carry out. The only group to benefit from all this, predictably, is top management, with Royal Mail arch-boss Adam Crozier pocketing a £3 million bonus last year.

Most scandalous of all is the debacle of the postal workers' pension. A 13-year pension "holiday," in which management stopped paying into the pension plan, has led to a pension fund deficit of £10-15 billion. Many postal workers now face ending their working lives with no pension scheme at all. As a workplace rep puts it: "No one's explained it to us, no one's really questioned why they did it. All they've said is ‘It's happened, that's it, and now we've got to pay for it."

But that isn't postal workers' only response. Following on a series of strikes over the summer in London and other militant areas, postal workers have now voted three to one for national strike action. Given the extreme caution of the union leadership, which in 2007 confined the dispute to a two-day stoppage, the hope is that fury over the behavior of Royal Mail and the government will project even these leaders into more decisive action. The workers are certainly ready for it. In spite of losing over £1,000 in pay during the summer strikes, "they're adamant that they're going to see it out to the bitter end," according to a London rep.

The current strike is seen as the only way postal workers can stave off the voracious agenda of the New Labour government and Royal Mail. Referring to the 2007 strike, a workplace rep said: "We had Royal Mail, and we let it go…We've got to win this strike, we've got to get what we're asking for, or this will never be over."

[Sheila Cohen is a member of the National Union of Journalists in the UK and the author of Ramparts of Resistance, about workers’ battles in the U.S. and the UK over the last 40 years.]