The controversial Postal Services Bill has passed through the House of Commons and is now with the House of lords. If it comes into law, this Bill would open the door for privatisation of the Royal Mail. The Tory led coalition is pushing this measure through despite a YouGov poll from last August showing that privatisation only has the support of 15% of the British  people. The postal workers union, the CWU, has been at the head of the ongoing campaign to oppose this Bill and the threat of privatisation. Around the country demonstrations have taken place, including events in Birmingham, Nottingham and even Kingston-upon-Thames.
We asked CWU London No 7 branch secretary and activist, Andy Blake, about developments:

“Following the election of a Tory led government in 2010, the plans to dismember and privatise Royal Mail have been reintroduced and ramped up. There seems to be no end to the stress and indignity the government is determined to make our workforce suffer in their drive for privatisation.

“As with the banks, the plan outlined by Vince Cable in the Postal Service Bill, currently winding its way through parliament, is for only the profitable parts of the service to be in private hands and for the state and tax-payer to kindly fund the necessary but less profitable Post Office. The Tories, who after all understand big business rather well, since their aim is always to turn the interests of big business into government policy, know that it will be difficult to find a buyer for the service in its current form, especially with a strong union.

“The need to dismantle (‘streamline’) the service by closing mail centres to make it commercially attractive is one reason why this process has been so protracted – these plans in their original form were first unveiled by Michael Hesseltine as far back as 1994 during the period of the last Tory government of John Major.

“If it is sold off to a company such as TNT, we can expect this process of mail centre closures, which will help drive up profits but worsen the postal service, to accelerate. However to do this they first need to neuter the trade union, the militancy of which is the other reason why the process has been stretched out. The last government had to partially back down during the strike action that took place before Christmas 2009. That showed the strength of the workforce, who also have the sympathy of the public.

“But it is clear that the plans were only temporarily put on hold to buy the government time, which is the only way they could hope to beat the workers. The Tories are now bringing the plans back in as part of their all out assault on the working class.

“Since privatisation is still on the table, what should the workforce do? The plans need to be comprehensively defeated by industrial unity and militancy. There is no other way, since this government is determined to unleash the most severe attacks on living standards since the 1920s to put British capitalism on its feet. This applies not just to postal workers but the whole working class – only a concerted campaign of industrial militancy across society can defeat the government.

“The CWU has already staged a number of rallies and protests around the country with more to come. People are not stupid. They know what a privatised post service will mean whatever final form it takes. We know what happened with the other public utilities, privatised under the Thatcher/Major governments - prices went up and the quality of service went down. The people don’t want this. Those who work in the post service don’t want this. We must and will fight this.”

Further information about the CWU campaign to fight the sell-off can be found by visiting their website at:
cwu.org/keep-the-post-public