Britain: Postal workers win important victory

THE COURAGEOUS unofficial action by tens of thousands of postal workers in the last two weeks has shown that bullying bosses can be stood up to and forced to retreat.

Postal workers achieved a significant victory in their defensive struggle, which has gone a long way to removing the scars and tyranny management tried to inflict upon them in the last month, since the union narrowly lost a national ballot on pay.

Their action has shown how ineffective the anti-union laws and management intimidation can be.

The Post Office have had had to agree that to their "knowledge the CWU did not instigate unofficial action" and … "will not make legal claim against the CWU for any action to date."

The dispute is estimated to cost the Post Office between £50 million – £100 million and could cost big business billions.

The agreement signed at 3.30am on Monday 3 November shows a management in disarray and rapidly retreating from their previous hard line.

The revelations over the previous weekend of the spying and intimidation that Royal Mail management was stooping to, forced bosses on to the back foot.

But it was primarily the firm, resolute, all-out action of tens of thousands of rank-and-file postal workers, which stopped management.

They showed they were not going to accept new working practices and back-to-work agreements being imposed which aimed to undermine the effectiveness of the workers’ union, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU).

From The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party, cwi England and Wales

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