Willie Marshall speaks at an SSP press conference
Fighting for the survival of the postal service
Willie Marshall, CWU Scotland no 2 branch secretary
We are fighting for the very survival of the postal service. Royal Mail are trying to run it down and don’t care about the service. It wasn’t the CWU which withdrew the Sunday service or the second post. The cuts in Delivery Offices are making the service worse.
Workers face massive harassment in the workplace, taken off pay if they don’t work hard enough. The way we are being treated in the workplace is the biggest single issue for CWU members, more so than pay.
Back in June the CWU offered mediation through ACAS to resolve issues. RM weren’t interested. Now they have suggested mediation. But the reason is they want us to suspend the strikes, to get through the busy Xmas period and then take us on in January. That’s not on.
I cannot believe UNITE, a trade union, are allowing members [Royal Mail managers] to scab continually. But that is what they are doing.
In hiring the extra 30,000 temporary workers, Royal Mail are trying to intimidate CWU members into surrender. It is illegal to hire staff during a strike. Once we identify the places they are taking these 30,000 we will approach them not to scab.
And the talk of TNT putting posties on the street is sheer propaganda. There’s no way they could deliver to households.
Royal Mail are also asking for ‘volunteer workers’ amongst our own workforce – trying to enlist scabs. They are saying they can re-arrange days off and holidays and volunteer to work on strike days somewhere that nobody will know them! They are encouraging scabbing.
What gets me about New Labour is that their conference carries a motion putting our side of the case, but the Labour government is colluding with Royal Mail bosses to destroy the union and the postal service. CWU members want no truck with the Labour Party.