I fully advocate the workers strike, and am disgusted by royal mails response, and also the condemnation by the general public. For once the workers make a stand, unlike others who are all too willing to accept things as they are in this capitalist system. Look at the bbc 'have your say' comments to find out just how brainwashed the general public are.

Both sides have to give way on this dispute. If it has gone beyond the point at which Royal Mail can reverse the privatisation of some of their services, then Royal Mail should be put under no legal obligation to deliver mail for companies who accrue half the stamp revenue for by virtue of getting the contract. If they want the contract, then they should deliver it themselves - otherwise give Royal mail a larger cut! It is Postcom who set these rules, dancing to the tune of EU regulations. It is time the UK government intervened and looked at this deal again.

Meawhile, Crozier has hit a raw nerve about oudated working practices in RM. The overtime abuse he referred to has had no substantive response from the CWU, because they know on this score and flexible working practice he has a point (all because less mail needs to be sorted because it arrives in bulk delivery from privaet operators - meaning less labour required for preping post in the delivery depots). I understand the overtime abuse is not as bad as when I was working for RM, when a postie came back home from his/her round and claimed overtime for doing someone else's delivery even if part of this time including preping the delivery was effectively done in their own normal contracted shift!!! Apparantly, this still goes on to a limited extent, which is frankly an abuse of normal business practice.

The more CWU defend their untenable position of non-negotiation of their outdated labour practice, the less credibility they get and the less public sympathy they get too. Also, like every large labour union of the 1970s, the more they continue flying in the face of rationality, the quicker they will bring on the demise of their comrades (for the deputy head of CWU to make claims of workers having been working like slaves is so preposterous, it's embarrassing!). What their workers need is responsible leadership, not this ostrich approach pulling the wool over the eyes of their CWU membership as they repeat parrot fashion what the workers expect them to reiterate, without exploring with them a reasoned, frank assessment of Royal Mail (something which, admittedly, previous chief exec Alan Leighton seemed to do better than current head Crozier - after-all, Leighton encouraged workers to become shareholders in RM at one time, and managed to get workers to work more as ateam than had happened for years; the fact that intransigence over a basic level of certain working practices has continued also goes to show that the leadership of both the Royal Mail and CWU are equally to blame for allowing this situation to fester to this point).

Both sides have to give way on this dispute. If it has gone beyond the point at which Royal Mail can reverse the privatisation of some of their services, then Royal Mail should be put under no legal obligation to deliver mail for companies who accrue half the stamp revenue by virtue of getting the contract. If they want their contracts delivered, then they should deliver it themselves - otherwise give Royal Mail a larger cut! It is Postcom who set these rules, dancing to the tune of EU regulations. It is time the UK government intervened and looked at this deal again.

Meawhile, Crozier has hit a raw nerve about oudated working practices in RM. The overtime abuse he referred to has had no substantive response from the CWU, because they know on this score and flexible working practice he has a point (all because less mail needs to be sorted because it arrives in bulk delivery from private operators - meaning less labour required for preping post in the postal delivery offices). I understand the overtime abuse is not as bad as when I was working for RM, when a postie came back home from his/her round and claimed overtime for doing someone else's delivery even if part of this time including preping the delivery was effectively done in their own normal contracted shift!!! Apparantly, this still goes on to a limited extent, which is frankly an abuse of normal business practice.

The more CWU defend their untenable position of non-negotiation of their outdated labour practice, the less credibility they get and the less public sympathy they get too. Also, like every large labour union of the 1970s, the more they continue flying in the face of rationality, the quicker they will bring on the demise of their comrades (for the deputy head of CWU to make claims of workers having been working like slaves is so preposterous, it's embarrassing!). What their workers need is responsible leadership, not this ostrich approach pulling the wool over the eyes of their CWU membership as they repeat parrot fashion what the workers expect them to reiterate, without exploring with them a reasoned, frank assessment of Royal Mail (something which, admittedly, previous chief exec Alan Leighton seemed to do better than current head Crozier - after-all, Leighton encouraged workers to become shareholders in RM at one time, and managed to get workers to work more as ateam than had happened for years; the fact that intransigence over a basic level of certain working practices has continued also goes to show that the leadership of both the Royal Mail and CWU are equally to blame for allowing this situation to fester to this point).

interesting euphemism for 'The Government' the pdf refers to 'our shareholder'
ps - annualised hours can be just as good as normal annual leave, we have it in my (public sector) workplace and it's mostly popular.

the miners/posties are on strike - management refuses to talk - miners/posties are blamed and condemned by government, media etc etc - government refuses to intervene to see rational talks taking place over legitimate grievances - management continues to refuse talks and uses bullying tactics knowing media hyenas will rip into union - story becomes 'strike not holding, drift back to work' spin to marginalise miners/posties - next will be each individual union member receiving letter from management threatening their jobs - what next? sequestration? - don't believe the hype!! check out the 1980's miners strike for more details of what to expect next

great brainwashed don't get is if we lose the royal mail then the privates that step in will make the cost so prohibitive many companys will go under

LibCom is a site which jokes about rape and yet has pretensions of anarchism. They have done nothing except snipe against every progressive which they have failed to infiltrate and control, and yet every LibCom post here gets promoted ? So how many IMCistas are willing to admit they are this new wave of SWP fakers ?

It's a good article about an important issue. As have been other libcom related posts. Their forums might stink, but then so do the IMC process lists!!