Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Postal dispute could be the Alamo for New Labour



















Dear All

You know that a crisis is serious when Peter Mandelson sticks his oar.

There is a postal strike looming and by all accounts, it is going ahead.

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson describes the postal strike as "totally self-defeating".

In stead of trying to sound concerned; he should look at it from the point of view of the workers, their wages and conditions.

Mandelson believes Industrial action would not resolve the dispute but simply drive customers away from Royal Mail; however it would put intense pressure on the management as government puts pressure on them.

Mandelson hasn’t had to experience living in poverty or even living like a normal citizen, for him it is foreign travel, exotic holidays and billionaire’s yachts coupled with substantial wages and expenses.

The Communication and Workers Union has quite rightly accused Lord Mandelson of interfering, if he wants to help then why doesn’t he sit in on the negotiations

As a gesture Royal Mail says it is willing to go to conciliation service Acas if postal staff call off their strike but with so many quangos seen as full of corrupt Labour placemen why would you want to?

The reason I believe that Mandelson is concerned is nothing to do with helping but rather to stem what maybe a tide of industrial unrest sweeping through unions.

The unions are starting to ask questions, and Labour doesn’t have any tangible answers to supply back!

But there is another big problem on the horizon, Royal Mail wants to hire 30,000 temp staff to help deal with the effects of the strike, that would be seen as using temp staff for the purposes of strike breaking.

This would lead to the dispute being inflamed and with a General Election just round the corner; employment law could be a feature of that election, if this dispute turns nasty.

So, rather than doing soundbytes, Mandelson should get a team together and pop in and get round the table with both sides in any capacity.

If the dispute runs into Christmas people will not be understanding at that time of year in any way shape or form.

There must be room for a deal somewhere.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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