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EVENT
After the election: what next for centre-left politics?
CAMPAIGN
High Pay Commission
PUBLICATION
The Advertising Effect
THINKPIECE
#60 Responses to Recession
Public demand government refers postal dispute to ACAS
Results of a YouGov poll commissioned by Compass has shown clear majorities support government intervention to bring all sides together in the ongoing postal dispute.
60% share the view that the government should set up a long-term independent review on the future of Royal Mail to find a way that the service can be modernised with the consent and full participation of the management, all the workforce and the users of the service - both business and the public. Whilst 57% share the view that the government should force the two sides to take their dispute to the conciliation service, ACAS, which was set up to help settle disputes between workers and management.
The poll results published on the first day of strike action are released with a statement entitled Saving Royal Mail that has been signed by high profile figures from across civil society and from all corners of the UK, urging the government to intervene to bring the dispute to an end and secure the future of Royal Mail in public hands.
With growing anger on the Labour backbenches at the conduct of the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, the poll results, along with the statement, rightly pile even more pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to actively intervene to bring the dispute to an early end.
Neal Lawson, Chair of Compass said: "We urgently need the government to intervene - this is our public service and the public want the government to take immediate action to stop the dispute and create the basis for the long-term sustainability of our public post service - the key to unlocking this is modernisation by consent - it's now the job of government to urgently bring all sides to the ACAS table and announce an independent review of Royal Mail so all stakeholders can have a say on its future, this would guarantee co-operation not confrontation".
Jon Cruddas MP said: "The government must act to end this dispute, the only way to ensure success is with the involvement of ACAS coupled with establishing an independent review to facilitate modernisation with the consent of all sides - this has huge public support. It is the clear job of government to now intervene at the earliest opportunity, sitting back and doing nothing is simply not an option".
The statement Saving Royal Mail reads:
"The Royal Mail is a much loved public institution. It faces great challenges because of new technology and market liberalisation but has a talented and committed workforce and the backing of the public. Last year it made a huge profit.
But something is going badly wrong. The current dispute looks as if it could drag the whole organisation down. Both sides, the management and the union, seem to be unintentionally on a course of mutually assured destruction. If the management think they can ‘win' by defeating the moral voice of the workers then they know nothing about running a people centred business. If the union thinks it can carry on regardless in the face of new pressures and new technology then they equally consign themselves to the history books. We know neither side wants this but they need help.
This is where the government comes in. The post office is an essential publicly owned utility and it is the government's duty to ensure it is run well. At the moment it looks as though they are sulking on the side lines because they couldn't get their part-privatisation through and have now washed their hands of the whole thing. They need to rise to the challenge of creating a new space in which the future of the Royal Mail can be discussed and decided by all the key stakeholders.
But it means starting with a blank sheet of paper and unlocking the experiences, talents and commitment of all the workers, management and users of the post. Other public services have been transformed by this approach. It is time for Royal Mail to go through a thorough independent review with both sides committed to implementing the outcomes of such a process - for the very good reason that they will be involved every step of the way.
Royal Mail will either quickly decline with the union and management locked into a war that neither side can win or the management will have to concede the union has a positive part to play in restructuring the organisation while the union recognises that modernisation will mean pain and sacrifice but will ultimately secure the best interests of its members. Restructuring would include the formation of a new Post Bank for cheaper loans and lower charges, a financial provider in every community that everyone can trust.
The Royal Mail is treasured in part because it is a place where we are all equal - all treated the same. Everyone pays the same price and everyone gets the same service - we want this to remain.
We therefore call on the government to do two things. In the short term to stop the strike and get both sides talking they must immediately call in ACAS the independent arbitration service. For the longer term, to facilitate modernisation, which can only come from the co-operation of all sides, they must bring in sympathetic advisers to run a four month process which will lead to public recommendations on how the organisation should be structured and run, which reconciles the needs of the public, the demands on the management and the interests of the people who work for Royal Mail. We call on the management and union to wholeheartedly back this move and engage fully in it. If any stakeholder refuses this reasonable proposal then they stand to lose forever the backing of the public.
It won't be easy and time is running out. There are a host of positive ideas about how to run the Royal Mail in a more efficient, productive and fair way. It's the government's job to create the opportunity to make it happen."
Signed by:
Alan Hutton, Glasgow Caledonian University
Andrew Simms, Policy Director nef
Anthony Barnett, Founder, opendemocracy.net
Austin Mitchell MP
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Bob Laxton MP
Christian Wolmar, author
Chuka Umunna, Labour PPC, Streatham
Clare Short MP
Colin Challen MP
Colin Hines, Convenor, Green New Deal Group
Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON
David Chaytor MP
David Drew MP
David Hamilton MP
Denis Murphy MP
Eric Illsley MP
Dr Eric Shaw
Dr Richard Grayson
Frank Cook MP
Gavin Hayes, General Secretary, Compass
Gerald Holtham
Guy Palmer, The Poverty Site
Gwynn Prosser MP
Heather Wakefield, Head of Local Government, UNISON
Hugh Lanning, Deputy General Secretary, PCS
Ian Davidson MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Janet Dean MP
Jim Devine MP
Jim Dobbin MP
Joan Walley MP
John Battle MP
Jon Cruddas MP
Kate Hoey MP
Keith Norman, General Secretary, ASLEF
Kelvin Hopkins MP
Lindsay Mackie, nef
Lynsey Hanley, journalist & author
Mark Donne, Director of the Fair Pay Network
Mark Fisher MP
Martin Johnson, Deputy General Secretary, ATL
Mike Gapes MP
Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass
Oliver James, author
Prof Colin Crouch FBA, University of Warwick Business School
Prof Colin Leys, Goldsmith's College London
Prof David Marquand
Prof Ivor Gaber
Prof Jonathan Rutherford, Middlesex University
Prof Ruth Lister CBE
Richard Burden MP
Robin Murray
Roger Levett, Levett-Therivel Sustainability Consultants
Sam Tarry, Chair, Young Labour
Sir Steve Bullock, Executive Mayor of Lewisham
Stewart Wallis, Director, nef
Tony Benn
Tony Robinson, actor & broadcaster
For further information contact Gavin Hayes on 0207 463 0633 / 07900 195591
Notes to editors:
- Compass is the influential centre-left political pressure group with over 30,000 members and supporters across the UK.
- All polling figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,040 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20th - 21st October 2009. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
Want to write an article like this? If you’re a Compass member you can submit your own articles and start your own debates on the Compass debates member’s section, an autonomous space for our members to initiate debate and discuss ideas.
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Comments
on 29 October 2009, 6:24:10 PM
Vol. 31 No. 21 · 5 November 2009
In the Sorting Office
Like Roy Mayall writing in your issue of 24 September, I am a postman and concerned at the absence in the media of any account of how mail delivery is organised and what Royal Mail’s modernisation programme entails. The programme was introduced because the popularity of email and texting has caused a drop in mail volume. Royal Mail’s first step was to reduce the number of walks. It did this by cutting some walks in each area and making the remaining walks longer. A postman who normally delivered mail to six streets, say, now found himself delivering to eight or nine. During the summer months, when mail volumes were low, he could, perhaps, just cope with this. But as autumn begins and the Christmas catalogues start to come out, every week and sometimes every day can be heavy. In the run-up to last Christmas, there were postmen who only finished their walks at 7 or 8 p.m., sometimes two or three times a week. In one depot alone, around 15 postmen phoned in sick. This Christmas, with the even longer walks, it could be worse. Royal Mail is a strong promoter of general health and safety, but as the walks lengthen and the loads increase, many of us feel that our own health isn’t being taken into consideration.
The next step in the modernisation was to stop overtime. The new, longer walks were generated by a computer program called Pegasus. We were assured that Pegasus had made all the new walks around three hours long. Some of the walks were indeed three hours long, and the postmen on those rounds had no trouble completing them in time. But a significant number turned out to be considerably longer – some of them up to four and a half hours long – and mail began piling up as postmen brought post back at the end of the day because they couldn’t deliver their loads without working extra, unpaid time.
The most recently introduced measure is to return from a four-day week to a five-day week. For postmen working a 40-hour week, this means there will be two hours fewer each day to deliver the same amount of post. It is now no longer possible for any postman – including those doing the three-hour walks – to complete his or her walk in the allotted time, no matter how fast they walk. As the pressures increase, many postmen who have been with Royal Mail for a long time are taking voluntary redundancy. A lot of knowledgeable, hard-working postmen are leaving.
Postmen speculate endlessly as to why Royal Mail is making it impossible for us to do our job properly. The most common theory is that Royal Mail actually wants to get rid of us and replace us with casual workers. Traditionally, Royal Mail hires casual staff to help deliver the heavy Christmas mail. This year the casuals never left. As required, they can be phoned at a moment’s notice to come in and help out. They may be asked to work for just a few hours or a whole day. If mail volumes are low, they are not called and are not paid. When paid, they are paid less per hour than the full-time postmen. And because, as casual workers, they cannot join the union, they have no representation if and when things go wrong. At present Royal Mail favours the casuals, but in time, if they start experiencing the pressures the postmen are facing now, there won’t be a union to protect them. In contrast to the casuals, postmen are mostly on 40-hour-week contracts. When they go on holiday or get sick, Royal Mail continues to pay their salaries. All these costs and difficulties fall away with casual workers. From a financial perspective, Royal Mail may think that getting rid of its long-serving postmen is worth it.
Maybe the fact that Royal Mail is now run by managers who have little or no hands-on experience and who use computer-generated models to organise everything is the explanation. We experienced this directly with Pegasus when some walks turned out to be considerably longer than others. The data that had been fed into Pegasus were standardised: each walk had a set number of destinations, with so many seconds to walk up a garden path, so many seconds to put letters through a letterbox etc. Not only did Pegasus get the total timings spectacularly wrong, but the walks made much less sense than when they were organised by the postmen themselves: for instance, a postman could find himself walking an extra 200 yards down the road to deliver mail to six letterboxes that would have more easily and naturally fitted into someone else’s walk.
A more cynical theory is that Royal Mail is being deliberately run into the ground so that when the next opportunity to privatise it comes around, people will be so fed up that they will accept it as the unavoidable solution to getting their post on time again.
A postman on a 40-hour contract works an eight-hour day on average. He or she spends the first two or three hours sorting the unsorted mail in the depots. He then takes 30 minutes for breakfast. For the next two or three hours he sequences the mail for his own walk so that he can deliver it door to door. He then has to travel to and from his walk and deliver his mail in the remaining time. It can’t be done, at least not without overtime, which Royal Mail has stopped altogether. Casual workers, however, don’t have to sort mail at the depot – this is done for them by the postmen on 40-hour contracts. Instead, they move straight to sequencing their door-to-door mail. When they leave the depot, they can take as long as they need to deliver their mail. On the heavier walks, some work 12-hour days. That’s how long it really takes to sequence and deliver some walks – and that’s without sorting!
Working for Royal Mail has become a bewildering experience. Depot managers pressure and harass us to comply to rigidly fixed unworkable schedules. They insist we take out full loads of mail, which they know and we know cannot be delivered in the allotted time. We therefore constantly bring back the undelivered surplus and waste time the following day getting it ready to take out again. Meanwhile, the depot managers can report the walk as cleared to their superiors, who are obviously putting them under pressure too. It’s evident that some depot managers are just as unhappy with this state of affairs. Their orders are to push out as much mail every day as possible, regardless of the amount that comes back at the end of each shift.
Of course the strike is adding to the chaos, but it is not causing it. The one-day-a-week strike – now countrywide – is an attempt to pressure Royal Mail to come to the table to discuss the dire situation and a way for postmen to express support and solidarity with one another as we face an onslaught of unmeetable demands.
Pat Stamp
London W10
on 28 October 2009, 4:44:28 PM
Restrictions on our liberties have come this decade, famously, from our own government, which has placed itself in the vanguard of all anti-liberal democracies. The continuing inhibitor of our life choices, even if we liberalise away from our so called anti-terrorist laws, as we know, will be capital. Capital hits our life choices and choices as it does not in countries that mitigate capital's worst effects.
Now, the efforts to make Europe a liberalized heaven are pushed very much by Blue Labour and their ilk. Blue Labour have been less enamored of Europe's social chapters. The substance of social democracy is stronger in Europe, give or take a Christian Democrat who is to the left, in some cases well to the left, of Blue Labour, than it is in Britain.
The likes of Murdoch look on a stronger Europe with trepidation and with reason, as it is a force strong enough to end his stranglehold over opinion in this country.
Of course, you could always join/start a campaign to move the real power of Europe to its elected chamber.
Europe or not, prone as we are, legs akimbo to Capital, in this country, we are done for. Your northern constituencies of all those strong hold northern Blue Labour MPs, have done nothing about this.
on 27 October 2009, 9:43:43 PM
Neal Lawson should know better being a believer in communism that "the democratic left ouight to recognise that a greater increase in state power carries with it more dangers to freedom than the economic problems that we now face"
Perhaps Neal can answer the the last paragraph. I won't hold my breath. He can't...
on 27 October 2009, 5:55:59 PM
As for the North, a lot of loyal Blue Labourites are MPs for northern constituencies, which have done nothing to hold those Blue Labourite MPs to account.
If the Tories get in, looking likely, and Scotland does go, and Cameron does gerrymander the constituencies, the natural Labour country will be much reduced.
In this day and age, progressive politics are about more than Yorkshire and, sad to say, the miners.
Industry, in case you were wondering, does need to be resurrected in this country, but of course, I mean sustainable industry. This does not mean that the progressive consensus needing to be built can only take shape and have meaning for Yorkshire's input (and I am normally on Yorks's side against the Notts and the Derbs).
Call Lawson's bluff for G-d's sake. Don't just put your dummy in your gob and go home with your blankie. You're coming across as really vain.
on 27 October 2009, 10:25:29 AM
There is an extremely interesting article by George Monbiot in today's guardian on this very subject. If elected Blair might have to travel to countries that have combined domestic and international laws on their statute books. These laws are the same that allowed Pinochet to be arrested. Also he would have to commit to a diary schedule which up to now he has avoided. So George puts forward a case for Blair to be arrested for making illegal war, by citizens arrest in a specific country, that has this law. Obviously for this reason George would like to see Blair as president. As the salary is £250,000 P.A. it must be very tempting for Tony, i think maybe Cherie will be revising over the next couple of months.
on 26 October 2009, 11:33:10 PM
Who is fighting the good fight in London Neal. Fight with your pen and you will end up with less people listening. Dreamworld politics.
Tony Blair for Europe, thats been on the cards for years New Labour, New Life, New Bank Account. Lets cash in. Thats New Labour for you.
on 26 October 2009, 7:56:00 PM
No doubt many rank and file members of Compass would agree with what Brian says, so way supplicate Neal Lawson on this matter? Lawson is not Compass and would only do as Brian suggests if a) there were some political and networking advantage to Lawson; or b) members of Compass acted collectively to by-pass Lawson the obstacle to Left coalition making.
on 26 October 2009, 7:12:18 PM
on 26 October 2009, 6:00:53 PM
That is a very good question, and one that some members of Compass would like to see answered. If we really are serious about left coalitions, it makes sense to invite McDonnell to at least contribute. If we can talk to the Greens surely we can get John to debate here as well. He was very good the other day on channel 4 news regarding the postal strike. He is still a big hitter, has a socialist agenda and would be a great asset, so Neal again any chance of this please?
on 26 October 2009, 5:47:15 PM
The right wing institutions in this country herd the people right-ward. Included here would be the press, which works by slow accretion.
With the financial crisis, people needed a social democratic alternative that the death of Labour meant they could not have. By the intertia of politics in this country, it just so happened that with Tweedle-Dum failing, Tweedle-Dee's chance seemed to be up. Blue Labour continues to steer rightward owing to its fearful and ill-reading of the public. People are not enamored of Cameron or his Eton cronies, they just have an acceptance that they will form the next government and anything to get rid of the complete waste that has been Brown and Blue Labour.
It's funny Politique, you waste all our time with your bitterness, but offer no alternative. People in history have faced far greater opposition that does social democracy right now, and they have picked themselves up and joined the fight. If people like you played a constructive part and started to recruit good leftwingers, you could help with the steering and prevent a righward drift. Otherwise, you could slit your wrists, if that is what you were really wanting to do.
on 25 October 2009, 12:58:54 AM
on 24 October 2009, 8:47:55 PM
on 24 October 2009, 8:42:59 PM
Why doesn't John Mcdonnell support the Compass show road?
on 24 October 2009, 2:13:13 PM
'Compass is the influential centre-left political pressure group with over 30,000 members and supporters across the UK...'
This is just spin by Compass, claiming to influence they just don't have in reality. Just because you receive emails from their Publicity machine does not mean you're a 'supporter' and just how many paid up members are there at the moment?
on 24 October 2009, 10:47:58 AM
Comment relates to this article and from inside sources:
Is Allan Leighton running the Post Office or The Office?
on 23 October 2009, 9:49:39 PM
on 23 October 2009, 9:02:31 PM
on 23 October 2009, 11:30:18 AM
Nothign will ever happen under New Laboru . It is much more important to finish off New Labour first.
on 22 October 2009, 7:57:32 PM
I suppose a latter day Berle and Means would consider this to be yet another - perhaps the classic - New Labour example of the divorce between ownership and responsibility. No, no... forget that "classic"... take it out... The really classic example has to be the way the Supreme Cheese's Supreme Act of Strategic Genius solved the financial collapse by stuffing the mouths of bankers with the public's, as yet unearned, money. Brilliant stuff. Innit just?
on 22 October 2009, 3:13:21 PM
The first was the entry into an illegal war based upon the lies of the then Prime Minister.
The second is now the support by the Deputy Prime Minister and unofficial leader, Lord Mandelson, for a company managed by people who are recruiting scabs in order to break a union whose members are decent, underpaid public servants.
Get real Compass and this signatory group of itinerant Labour supporters and MPs. The Government is not doing nothing as Jon Cruddas and Neal Lawson imply; it is actively intervening to support Royal Mail management.
If, by some chance, the next election produced a hung parliament or even a small Labour majority, de facto Labour leader and miracle worker would be Lord Mandelson, strikebreaker. So, when are you going to take a real stand against the truly dreadful leadership of your party?
Enough. Now
on 22 October 2009, 12:36:46 PM
But as a Compass member, I am very disappointed to see the following in Compass' statement:
"Both sides, the management and the union, seem to be unintentionally on a course of mutually assured destruction." and "If the union thinks it can carry on regardless in the face of new pressures and new technology then they equally consign themselves to the history books."
This is wrong. It is clear that it is the management, with the support of members of the government, that have been the ones preventing ACAS involvement. It has not been the CWU.
on 22 October 2009, 12:34:28 PM
But as a Compass member, I am very disappointed to see the following in Compass' statement:
"Both sides, the management and the union, seem to be unintentionally on a course of mutually assured destruction." and "If the union thinks it can carry on regardless in the face of new pressures and new technology then they equally consign themselves to the history books."
This is wrong. It is clear that it is the management, with the support of members of the government, that have been the ones preventing ACAS involvement. It has not been the CWU.
on 22 October 2009, 12:25:53 PM
But as a Compass member, I am very disappointed to see the following in Compass' statement:
"Both sides, the management and the union, seem to be unintentionally on a course of mutually assured destruction." and "If the union thinks it can carry on regardless in the face of new pressures and new technology then they equally consign themselves to the history books."
This is wrong. It is clear that it is the management, with the support of members of the government, that have been the ones preventing ACAS involvement. It has not been the CWU.
on 22 October 2009, 11:43:21 AM
In turn employing a management structure that is committed to a public service that is going forward in the 21st century. This has got to include the union and workforce contributing to this vision. There are already lots of good ideas coming forward to sustain a bright future for the PO. However a political elite that has no conscience in betraying its own grassroots. In turn has no problem getting rid of a problem of their making e.g. pension fund theft and gap. Blaming the workforce for an incompetent management structure by cynical politicians, is the easy way out. We cannot allow another great british public service to be sacrificed to the free market.
on 22 October 2009, 10:57:08 AM
On the other hand privatisation will leave Royal Mail workers hopelessly exposed to the downward pressure on wages from the free market, and increasing deregulation and competition in the industry will continually reduce the collective bargaining power of postal workers. It is also hard to see the current universal service surviving privatisation.
So if neither nationalisation nor privatisation can work in the long run, why is no-one advocating the third option: co-operative ownership along the John Lewis Partnership model?
I recently outlined on LabourHome (labourhome.org/?p=7821) the benefits of this approach, by sharing the profits that accrue from modernisation with the workers who will be required to make the sacrifices to achieve modernisation, by taking the liability of the pension fund off the taxpayers' hands (no PLC will do it), and by giving Royal Mail the commercial freedom to expand its business. It would also reduce worker unrest, improve industrial relations, reduce staff turnover and increase customer service.
I thought Compass was committed to creating more co-operatives? If it's not prepared to start with Royal Mail, then where?
I know Compass has been leading the Keep the Post Office Public Campaign, but that policy is beginning to seem outdated. Maybe we need a new approach?
on 22 October 2009, 9:56:33 AM
We're up to here with it, what with the mismanagement of the banking crisis when even the Governor of the Bank of England feels forced to criticise this terrible government for inaction, throwing more troops into Afghanistan so that they can be the sacrificial victims of another failed American war and, to top it off, we've just had the ONS UK population forecasts which demonstrate the real human consequences of New labour's free market open borders policy. And that's only in the last couple of days.
Even with the ginormous constituency boundary bias in Labour's favour, I'm beginning to give up hope of a hung parliament and I suspect that after all this nonsense we'll just have to settle for a long period of Tory government with the economically illiterate Fat Lad as Chancellor. Still, anything's got to be better than this. At least Fat Lad seems to be in approximately the same solar system as Mervyn King, so that's got to be some sort of plus.
on 22 October 2009, 9:43:37 AM
on 22 October 2009, 9:39:02 AM
The CWU have been offering to go to ACAS for days now. It was only on Tuesday that Mandelson came round to the idea, but his pro-management line has allowed Crozier et al to delay serious negotiations that could have prevented today's strike taking place - including their placing conditions on going to ACAS.
Strange that of the 15 MPs listed here demanding that the government force both sides to arbitration, 13 of them are amongst the 120 Labour MPs who have recognised the CWU's efforts in EDM 2035.
on 22 October 2009, 9:26:37 AM
Tory MP's and New Labour that now complain about local post office closures, are often the very same people that vilified post office counter staff for striking in the late 80's over post office closures. I was one of those counter workers who went on strike over post office closures, the prospect of major closures was denied by the Tory government and management at the time.
Perhaps when the post office can charge realistic prices for the services, they may have a viable sustainable service. As for Crozier the CEO earning over 3 million pound a year in pay and bonuses. he was brought in by new labour to privatise the post office. Private companies have creamed off all the profit making mail business, If Royal Mail gets privatised it will be the end of the universal postage system.
Paul
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