Why we should keep the Post Public

The following comes from the CWU Broad Left. It may or may not indicate my political prefereces.

KEEP THE POST PUBLIC

For the 4th time in 15 years the Government are trying to sell Royal Mail off. So, once again, the CWU and the many friends in other organisations have launched the Keep the Post Public Coalition to make sure that this doesn’t happen. The ConDems are using a revamped version of the Hooper Report as their justification this time round, but are the arguments really any different from before?

Royal Mail – a Basket Case?
The Government are saying that Royal Mail is in such a state that only a dose of private enterprise can save it. What an insult to all those who work there. It’s true that the company has a cash problem at the moment but that’s got nothing to do with the way it’s run. From the moment the last Government brought in rules on competition that meant that Royal Mail were effectively subsidising the likes of TNT, we said this would cripple Royal Mail. We were right. The deficit in the pension scheme, which costs the business hundreds of million £’s a year to repay, was not the fault of the members. Rather, it was due to Government policies, which took money out of the business in the good years, rather than invest it or keep it in hand for the lean years. We said the way to modernise Royal Mail was through an agreement between the Union and the present management and not by bringing in outside, private sector managers. We did this last April with the Business Transformation Agreement.

What Do We Want?
We don’t need private enterprise to sort out the problems of Royal Mail. We need Government action. We need a change to the competition rules to allow the company to compete on an even playing field. We need the Government to take over responsibility for the pensions deficit. None of this would involve immediate injections of money but it would immediately transform the company’s balance sheet. These are the things the Government would have to do anyway to make Royal Mail attractive to private investors. So, why privatise Royal Mail in the first place? And the idea that it is a few shares rather than decent wages and conditions that motivate the members to do a first class job is frankly laughable.

The Future
The difference between a privatised Royal Mail and a public one doesn’t boil down to simply which one you prefer. It will have a drastic effect on both the service to the public and on the jobs and the conditions the Workers will face. Under privatisation, the main drive will be to return a profit for the investors. Unprofitable services will simply be cut. We already know of a plan to axe the Saturday delivery. This will cost thousands of jobs. In Holland, TNT only deliver three days a week to some addresses and few foreign postal services deliver through the door.
  In a privatised Royal Mail, the business would be split off and parts of it sold separately to competitors. Again, this would put jobs at risk. Even the Post Office Network, which is due to stay publicly owned, would suffer. Why would a privatised Royal Mail carry on using them if they could find somewhere cheaper to do the work? Thousands more offices would end up closing. And we all know that the pay and conditions are far better than at the private competitors. In a privatised company the aim would be to drive these down to the lowest level.
  The future in a publicly owned Royal Mail isn’t going to be all milk and honey. Modernisation will bring change and job losses. But a publicly owned, fully integrated postal service, where a strong union forms an essential part, is the best guarantee of preserving and improving the terms and conditions and pushing for new products and services that can create jobs in the future.

What You Can Do
The Government has said that they intend to bring a Bill to Parliament in late October/early November. The aim of the Keep the Post Public campaign is to make sure this Bill doesn’t get carried. As well as calling on every Labour MP to oppose it, we are taking the fight to the Tories and Liberals by campaigning in their 71 most marginal constituencies. The CWU will also be calling a national demonstration of postal workers at a later date. Contact your local branch representative to find out the details of the local campaign. Go and see your local MP or councillors and tell them what you think of the plans. Get your friends and family to write to them or to the local press. The more noise we make, the harder it will be for the Government to ignore us.
  Privatising Royal Mail is still highly unpopular with the public. Every poll and every survey has told us that. If we do nothing, then we know what our future will hold. But if we can run an effective campaign, we can again defeat it. With the full support and assistance of CWU members, we will defeat it.
  With savage job cuts around the corner both in the Public and Private Sector (estimates of 1.3 Million jobs) we need to defeat the attack on our members in Royal Mail and we need to defeat the cuts proposed by the present Government. We need to co-ordinate action at grass-roots level. This is time for a Fightback!

JOIN THE BROAD LEFT AND JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR A FIGHTING LEADERSHIP
To join the Broad Left please email: thebroadcast@btinternet.com