by Chris McLaughlin
PRESSURE is building among post office workers for a break with the Labour Party in the wake of the post office closure programme, disputes over pensions and forthcoming proposals to privatise parts of the Royal Mail.
Following calls at the annual conference of the Communication Workers’ Union for disaffiliation from the party, a fresh campaign was due to be launched today (July 18) which could culminate in a ballot on future funding of the party.
As part of a campaign against the closure of up to 169 post offices in London, CWU members in the capital are threatening to withdraw support, or campaign against, Labour members in the most marginal seats who fail to oppose the closure plan.
“Our policy when it comes to the Labour link now is: use it or lose it”, said Martin Walsh, London divisional representative of CWU.
The move comes amid growing tension between unions and Downing Street in the run-up to the party’s National Policy Forum meeting next weekend, after the Glasgow East by-election result.
Mr Brown’s aides insist he is in a “listening mood” in relation to the Warwick II proposals for policy in the next election manifesto. But they are warning that the Government will give no ground on any proposal for legislation that would increase union industrial power.
Public sector unions and Mr Brown are locked in dispute over pay at a time when inflation is surging and the NPF meeting will take place against a backdrop of ongoing industrial action.
Amid a seemingly unstoppable series of policy and presentational gaffes the mood among Labour MPs at Westminster is widely seen as terminal resignation at the prospect of defeat at the next election. Hopes remain of holding the once-safe Glasgow East in the run-up to the parliamentary recess which begins on Tuesday, but there were strong signs of a collapse of the Labour vote.
The CWU campaign is likely to provide another headache for Mr Brown, chiming as it will with public opposition to the post office closures. Members in the London region are said to have “just about had enough” of policies which have downgraded occupational pensions, including the extension of qualifying age from 60 to 65.
Plans for the partial privatisation of mail centres, threatening wages and job losses, have also been greeted with angry opposition. There are fears that the Hooper review of competition within the Royal Mail, due to report at the end of the summer, is based on wildly miscalculated costings and will propose reforms which will threaten the future of the Royal Mail and universal distribution of mail.
