Labour and unions on collision course over Royal Mail sale

THE Government’s proposals to part-privatise the Royal Mail this week collided with a campaign supported by the TUC, its member unions and other activists to stop the plans, which could tear the Labour-union link apart.

by Tribune Web Editor
Thursday, February 26th, 2009

by René Lavanchy

THE Government’s proposals to part-privatise the Royal Mail this week collided with a campaign supported by the TUC, its member unions and other activists to stop the plans, which could tear the Labour-union link apart.

At a packed rally in Westminster, organised on the eve of Business Secretary Lord Mandelson presenting the Government’s bill in the House of Lords, the Communication Workers’ Union gave its strongest indication yet that it will split from Labour if the plans go ahead.

Ministers want to sell around 30 per cent of Royal Mail to a private company, in violation of its commitment at Warwick’s National Policy Forum to a “wholly publicly owned, integrated Royal Mail group”. The Dutch firm TNT is considered the frontrunner.

CWU members vote on affiliation annually, but the union leadership have apparently decided not to mobilise their officials in support of remaining within Labour, for which they pay around £1 million in funding a year.

The GMB union meanwhile is set to slash funding to MPs’ constituencies if they do not rebel against the Government.

A heated CWU general secretary Billy Hayes shouted at the audience: “If they privatise the postal service, I don’t care who wins the next election because there won’t be any difference between them.”

His deputy Dave Ward said: “When Mandelson publishes his bill on Thursday, it may be time for us to publish our own manifesto of ‘we will disaffiliate from the Labour Party’.”

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny told Tribune his union would strip MPs who voted for the bill of constituency funding: “We’ve got a register. It’s not just a threat. We’ve done it before.”

The Government has indicated its bill will guarantee that further privatisation will need new legislation.

However, Tribune has learned that relations between Gordon Brown and Labour-affiliated unions are at stalemate after union representatives told Downing Street officials that no sweeteners would persuade them to drop their opposition.

An argument is expected to break out with postal minister Pat McFadden at Labour’s National Policy Forum tomorrow (Saturday).

Labour peer Lord Clarke told the rally he would try to derail the bill as soon as it is presented in the Lords, and promised to write to every Labour peer asking them to vote  against it.

But although at least 125 Labour MPs had signed an Early Day Motion opposing the plans as Tribune went to press, the Government is likely to win – but only with the support of the Conservatives, who have promised it.

The Government has promised to underwrite Royal Mail’s pension deficit, and released a letter from its pension fund chair warning of “potentially devastating consequences” if the pensions are not bailed out.

But Dave Ward said: “This government chose to have a pensions holiday when the times were good for 13 or 14 years.”

A number of opposition MPs are expected to vote against the Government.  Daniel Kawczynski, the Conservative MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham who attended the rally, told Tribune: “I represent a very rural constituency. A lot of senior citizens live there. A foreign owned company will cut services. I will be defying the whip on that.”

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About The Author

  • Durotrigan

    This move to part-privatise the Royal Mail encapsulates perfectly why the Labour Party is now an utter irrelevance to traditional Labour supporters. Let’s call it by it’s real name: the ex-Labour Party. Labour is run by a clique of self-serving globalising ‘free-market’ fundamentalists. By continuing to affiliate to this morally bankrupt visionless party, trade unions are doing themselves and their members a great disservice. That’s why I refuse to join a union. If unions truly listened to the views of their existing and potential members instead of attempting to brainwash them into accepting ideological diktat from on high, they might well find that they could reverse their long-term decline in membership.

  • Durotrigan

    This move to part-privatise the Royal Mail encapsulates perfectly why the Labour Party is now an utter irrelevance to traditional Labour supporters. Let’s call it by it’s real name: the ex-Labour Party. Labour is run by a clique of self-serving globalising ‘free-market’ fundamentalists. By continuing to affiliate to this morally bankrupt visionless party, trade unions are doing themselves and their members a great disservice. That’s why I refuse to join a union. If unions truly listened to the views of their existing and potential members instead of attempting to brainwash them into accepting ideological diktat from on high, they might well find that they could reverse their long-term decline in membership.

  • Cllr Ken Hulme

    I’m truly amazed at Lord Peter Mandleson ‘The People’s Peer’.

    Has he misplaced his political compass since he was elevated ?

    Alienating the Unions, Demoralising the membership, and potentially bankrupting the party.All for a dodgy scheme few really believe in.

    I dread to think what this years European elections have in store for us. Perhaps ‘The People’s Peer’ is positioning himself to be able to blame the unions and the memberships disdain for privatisation for the appalling result now widely expected ?

  • Cllr Ken Hulme

    I’m truly amazed at Lord Peter Mandleson ‘The People’s Peer’.

    Has he misplaced his political compass since he was elevated ?

    Alienating the Unions, Demoralising the membership, and potentially bankrupting the party.All for a dodgy scheme few really believe in.

    I dread to think what this years European elections have in store for us. Perhaps ‘The People’s Peer’ is positioning himself to be able to blame the unions and the memberships disdain for privatisation for the appalling result now widely expected ?

  • Durotrigan

    Cllr Ken, do not be concerned about any cheap misplaced sniping from Mandelson. The electorate will see this measure within the wider context of the total failure of the ex-Labour Government’s policy agenda, and that is what they will vote upon. Given that the leadership have jettisoned a concept of the “national interest”, it is no wonder that the nation will now choose to jettison them. If you are incapable of recognising this basic tenet of democracy, i.e. the fact that you are the representatives of “the people” and not just anyone who happens to wash up on these shores, then you and your comrades are no longer fit to hold public office.

    The British public on the whole do not wish to see the Royal Mail privatised, for they wish it to be retained as a public service. A goodly number would also welcome a return of public ownership for key utilities and rail. Any party that stays in power for an excessive period of time becomes afflicted with hubris, and that is what has happened to the leadership of the ex-Labour Party. It is time for them to fade into the darkling night. I feel ashamed that I was ever associated with the Party, which is something that I never thought I’d say. The Party’s over.

  • Durotrigan

    Cllr Ken, do not be concerned about any cheap misplaced sniping from Mandelson. The electorate will see this measure within the wider context of the total failure of the ex-Labour Government’s policy agenda, and that is what they will vote upon. Given that the leadership have jettisoned a concept of the “national interest”, it is no wonder that the nation will now choose to jettison them. If you are incapable of recognising this basic tenet of democracy, i.e. the fact that you are the representatives of “the people” and not just anyone who happens to wash up on these shores, then you and your comrades are no longer fit to hold public office.

    The British public on the whole do not wish to see the Royal Mail privatised, for they wish it to be retained as a public service. A goodly number would also welcome a return of public ownership for key utilities and rail. Any party that stays in power for an excessive period of time becomes afflicted with hubris, and that is what has happened to the leadership of the ex-Labour Party. It is time for them to fade into the darkling night. I feel ashamed that I was ever associated with the Party, which is something that I never thought I’d say. The Party’s over.

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  • http://none colin Avey

    Now aged 69 and being a labour supporter all my life I can no longer support this rabble of would be Tories. I thought Thatcher was the ultimate in evil but this so called labour government is right on her heals and is in extreme danger of surpassing her. Having taken away the peoples rights, and left the pensioners to either freeze or starve, and now hinting of massive tax and national insurance increases for those lucky enough to still be in work (probably to give more to the bankers.) And It is no use keep slagging of the Tory party we know better than the protected labour MP,s what they are up to, i.e. an even more radical continuation of privatisation and cuts in services started by this non labour government.