The West Sussex County Times this week carried several stories about the strike by CWU members working for Royal Mail.The first contained interviews with striking workers at the Storrington Delivery Office, voicing their concerns about the future of the service and for themselves.
They stressed that the postal workers themselves want to see a good service and believe that plans to privatise or part privatise it will lead to a poorer service, and also mentioned how the government's 14-year holiday from contributions has led to a large deficit in the staff pension fund.
The second story was about members of Horsham Labour Party joining the picket line at the Hurst Road delivery centre to show their support for the action.
Part of the story was based on parts of a Horsham LP press release, and the rest was based on quotes from the Royal Mail management.Here is the full text of the Party's press release, some of which was incorporated in an earlier post on this site:
Horsham Labour Party, Proud to support the Postal Workers
Members of Horsham Labour Party including the Chair, David Hide, Secretary, Ray Chapman and Campaign Co-ordinator, Carol Hayton, joined members of the CWU on the picket line outside the Hurst Road postal distribution centre on Friday morning, 23rd October.
Horsham Labour Party Secretary, Ray Chapman, commented ‘The local Labour Party has written to Gordon Brown expressing our commitment to maintain a wholly publicly owned postal service, and we wanted to make sure that the striking postal workers could count on our support.’
Horsham Labour Party wanted to learn first hand what the postal workers grievances were. Contrary to the media reports it was explained that modernisation had been adopted and accepted in local sorting offices and the mailing operation. This was corroborated by one of the local managers who was also on the picket line.
It came across very strongly that the postal workers did not want to be bypassed in any further modernisation plans but wanted to be consulted on the changes to ensure that their terms and conditions were maintained alongside a first class public service. The striking postal workers are fully committed to a publicly owned nationwide postal service where a single priced stamp guarantees delivery through the length and breadth of Great Britain.
We heard that part or full privatisation, would lead to cherry picking of the profitable service areas by the private companies with the inevitable consequence of increased pricing for the customer and lower paid jobs with worse terms and conditions for the postal workers. The postal service is currently profitable and the local depot provides more than 150 full time jobs for local men and women. Why, the striking postal workers argued, should we break up this service? ‘We will fight to safeguard our jobs so that we can continue to provide a first class service for the people of Horsham.’
David Hide, Chair of Horsham, explained ‘It has been good to stand with the postal workers and listen to their concerns. We learnt that our local MP Francis Maude often pops down to the depot at Christmas to thank staff for their commitment to the local community. It would be good to see Francis Maude on the next picket line offering his support for postal workers and a commitment to a publicly owned Royal Mail.’