Cameron in Northern Ireland as government privatises Royal Mail

 PRESS RELEASE
9^th June 2011
For immediate release
Cameron visits Belfast while his government privatises Royal Mail !
The Communication Workers Union warns that the government’s Postal Services Bill leaves UK postal services facing an uncertain future on the day that David Cameron visits Belfast.
  MPs will consider amendments to the Bill today (Thursday) in the final parliamentary stage before Royal Assent, expected later this month. David Cameron won’t be there to vote on the Bill because he is visiting Belfast, but his legislation will put Northern Ireland postal services at risk of price hikes, huge job losses and more post office closures.
Lawrence Huston, CWU Northern Ireland Regional Secretary, said: “Dozens of Royal Mail workers are already facing an uncertain future across Northern Ireland and the government’s Bill will certainly make matters worse.
“In Northern Ireland we could face higher postage prices because of the cost of transporting first class mail from the mainland, while at the moment we enjoy a Universal Service with the same prices as anywhere else in the UK. The new legislation will also put pressure on Northern Ireland’s post offices. We could lose many of our rural post offices, the lifeline of our local communities, if a privatised mail service decides to stop using them as its retail network.
“The uncertainty over the future of our postal services is clearly bad news. David Cameron’s visit today shows his disinterest in what his government is doing to wreck our postal services. Royal Mail is already being made to slim down to look attractive to a private buyer, with staff in Royal Mail, customer services unit in Belfast already under the threat of closure, in the coming months.
“What the ConDem government is attempting to do is madness, and will surely desecrate the postal service as we know it. No thought has been given to the wishes of the local communities, or the will of all political parties where there is 100 per cent opposition in Northern Ireland, to the sell off!”
The legislation will enable the full or part privatisation of Royal Mail and will sever the link between mail business and the post office network. The legislation will also mean the government taking on the historic pension deficit and will abolish Postcomm and give regulatory control of postal services to Ofcom.
A poll of rural subpostmasters on behalf of the CWU published last month showed 92 per cent thought their post office was either very unlikely or unlikely to survive without mail business provided by Royal Mail. Less than 1 per cent (seven people) said they would be very likely to survive.
-ends-
Notes to editors:

·         The poll of 800 sub-postmasters was conducted on behalf of CWU by The Campaign Company between 26^th and 28^th April 2011.

·         There are 11,905 post offices across the UK, of which 10,174 are ‘sub-post offices’ (Postcomm 2009/10 annual report).
For more information please contact:
Sian Jones, Press Officer, tel: 020 8971 7267, mobile: 0779 3314249, e-mail: sbjones@cwu.org
Lawrence Huston, CWU Northern Ireland Regional Secretary, mobile: 07802 787733,
e-mail: northernirelandregion@cwu.org