Our Labour government is colluding against our postal workers – and I want the CWU to win

By Paul Halsall

Like most people, I have only been following the issue of the postal workers’ strike from the sidelines. I read the Guardian and watch the BBC just like much of the rest of the population. So I’m not posing as any expert here.

But today I talked to my local postman. He is a very mild man in is early fifties. Sometimes he can deliver the post by noon; other times it takes him to until 1:30 in the afternoon to get here. When I take out my dog, I see him all over the area, doing more actual physical work than any other person I know. He does not want to strike, but he is mad – because he is treated like crud at work.

Forget about all the lines you hear. How many people do you know who do more work (i.e. calories of effort) than your postman? If you have construction/maintenance workers in your family, perhaps you do – otherwise you might not. And yet these postmen have for years now been subject to managers pushed to distraction.

The post is a prima facie public service. It keeps the economy going; it’s vital; and it does not need to be trodden into the floor in order to produce viability. It’s the classic case of a sustainable industry which, certainly, needs to adjust to changes, but the Royal Mail does not not have any pretence to need to trash its workforce.

Our Labour government is co-operating with a privatisation-minded management against postal workers. The goal is more work for the same pay; with the eventual intention to sell off at least part of the service.

I don’t like Peter Mandelson and I, at least, do not want the government to succeed. I want the CWU to win. We may well lose the next election, but there is no reason to go down defending an essentially Tory agenda.

You may have a different view.

But on LabourList we should at least be discussing this – not T-shirt designs.