Pix-&-Vidz of Postal Workers’ Strike - 19 Jun 09

Dateline: Royal Mail HQ, Unilever House, 100 Victoria Embankment, London, UK, 11:00-12:00, Fri 19 to Sat 20 Jun 09 – On the day of an opening skirmish in the class war, strikers organised in the Communications Workers Union (CWU) stage a London-wide 24 hour postal strike, and similar in several Scottish areas. Pickets at the massive London South Mail Centre report one extremely solid strike, the Brockley picket line is “almost a street party”, and strikers rally outside Royal Mail’s corporate headquarters – to leave chief executive Adam Crozier and his boss-class cronies in no doubt that if you pick a fight with the posties, there’s a very good chance you’re gonna lose.

A1. United we stand, divided we fall

D1. Strikers suspect a management driven van

C9. Picket recursion – on the flag, AND on the demo

C8. As the Bard of Barking has it, “There Is Power In A Union”

C6. We’re with you until victory is ours

C5. Standing shoulder to shoulder

C4. Dave Ward, the CWU’s deputy general secretary (postal)

C3. City of London Sgt has a word

C2. Good-natured posties get stroppy with Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier

C1. Looming imperial facade – Royal Mail headquarters

B4. Pickets at SW1 & SW3 DOs celebrate One Solid Strike

B2. The massive London South Mail Centre

A2. London South Mail Centre Location

D2. Talking with the postman about politics

Vidz at YouTube

• Playlist: Postal Workers Strike – 19 Jun 09
» youtube.com/view_play_list?p=28DF78CA8B37EA50

• Video: CWU Strikers Rally 1 - Mass Support
» youtube.com/watch?v=QgwpO6pR8Zk

• Video: CWU Strikers Rally 2 - Interview Commences
» youtube.com/watch?v=U6gXtZoQvbo

• Video: CWU Strikers Rally 3 - Interview Concludes
» youtube.com/watch?v=laxGNfex4Ok

• Channel: Dalinian's Vidz – to which you’re invited to Subscribe
» youtube.com/user/dalinian61


On Fri 19 and Sat 20 Jun 09, an official 24 hour strike by postal workers across London and in several areas of Scotland (Edinburgh Mail Centre, Edinburgh South West and Central, Alloa, Grangemouth, Irvine, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Broxburn/Bathgate) closed down Royal Mail deliveries. Here’s what was happening in a couple of areas of London.


London South Mail Centre
Pickets do it early! I guess I should have paid better attention to the previous day’s CWU news item – “Picket lines will be in place at most delivery offices from 6am.” On Strike Day, Fri 19 Jun 09, I cycled over to my local site – the enormous London South Mail Centre – at 08:30, only to discover (thanks to a couple of friendly posties) that...
1. The Mail Centre staff were working normally; unfortunately, “balloting irregularities” meant that the site needed to be re-ballotted for strike action, which is happening on Mon 22 Jun 09; and
2. The picket line was at the other entrance on Post Office Way.

As I approached the picket, there were a couple of dozen folk who’d been there early doors, but by the time I’d locked up the bike, all but five had gone off for breakfast. Good news, though but – the strike in the SW1 and SW3 Delivery Offices was very solid indeed: only 2 out of 57 and 3 out of 246 were scabbing, so nothing was being delivered from those DOs on this strike day.


What’s All This About Then?
“Royal Mail has broken the 2007 agreement which committed the company to negotiating modernisation with the CWU. We are now seeing cuts but not modernisation in the postal industry and there's only so long before this is going have a major impact on services.

We have delivered the first three phases of the 2007 agreement. This was fully audited by Royal Mail and triggered the 6.9 per cent two-year pay deal. Royal Mail have abandoned the fourth phase of the deal which involves joint working groups to improve industrial relations and negotiate on the future of Deliveries, Mail Centres, the Distribution Network and the full introduction of new automation.

Royal Mail can't have it both ways. Their record profits were delivered by our members carrying out the 2007 agreement. The CWU does not and has not blocked change. Once again we are seeing Royal Mail working against the union and failing to engage the workforce. This behaviour is exactly what they have been criticised for by both the government and Hooper.

The company is failing on the big picture. Machinery is not being brought in and deliveries have not been re-designed.

We are offering Royal Mail and the government a three month no-strike deal if they fulfil the agreement to engage the CWU over modernisation and move to get the company on a sound footing for the future.”
~ Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary (postal)
• Source: Postal Strikes as Royal Mail Blocks Modernisation
» www.cwu.org/news/archive/postal-strikes-as-royal-mail-blocks-modernisation.html 

Almost A Street Party
Of the Brockley Sorting Office, Chris Knight writes:
“There was a strong picket on the gates of the Sorting Office in Brockley. Local traders, shoppers, neighbours and passers-by intermittently joined the 25 or so pickets who were on duty in very good humour throughout the morning. Shortly after I arrived with my daughter and grandchildren, we persuaded the driver of a cleaning company's white van to turn round, accompanied by laughter and applause. The greatest laughter was reserved to mock-congratulate the ten or so management scabs brought in from East London to deliver special delivery packets. They didn't seem to know which country they were in and broke every rule in the book! During the morning, the picket line in this busy part of South East London turned into a well-attended social event – almost a street party – such that bus drivers in the Camberwell direction decided to help by making the office gates a special unauthorized bus-stop. Passing cars hooted their support and well-wishers were invariably given the warmest of welcomes and invited to join the picket line. Everyone who stayed for a while received the best possible education into the details of the dispute and the meaning of solidarity.” 


Massing on the Bosses’ Doorstep
The strikers chose to stage a rally at Royal Mail’s corporate headquarters, situated in level three of the imposing imperialist neoclassical art deco stylings of Unilever House at 100 Victoria Embankment, London. A good-natured and noisy protest saw the CWU’s negotiating team ready to spring into action at the drop of a hat. But Royal Mail’s chief executive Adam Crozier and his boss-class cronies were significant by their absence, abjectly failing to respond to the rally’s megaphoned requests:

“Where are you, Adam?
Adam Crozier, where are you?
You caused this strike! 
Why don’t you come down and justify the savage cuts in services to the Royal Mail, Adam?
Come down and justify your £10 million pound salary, whilst we’ve got postmen who’re taking pay cuts and being forced to work longer for less!
Come down and justify yourself, Adam!
We’re down here cos we want to see a future for the Royal Mail – where are you?
Come down and speak to us!”
~ The Striker with the Megaphone
 
While the CWU officials were being interviewed by the mainstream media, I took the opportunity to seek out a rank-and-file postie, Dominic Beck, from Fulham, who volunteered an on-camera interview about the strike. 


Whatever Next?
There’s a blossoming Strike Support Group holding it’s third meeting this evening and I believe we’ll be meeting weekly from now on. Initially based in London, around supporting the Tubeworkers' Strike 09-11 Jun 09, we anticipated supporting the London Postal Strike 19 Jun 09, plus other public and private sector strikes emerging from the attacks on workers' livelihoods, as a consequence of the economic crisis.
Strike Support Group
• Mon 22 Jun 09, 19:30 – and weekly thereafter
• Twelve Pins pub, ground floor function room, Finsbury Park, London, N4 2DE
» Facebook Event Page: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113372714438


Up the Revolution,

Tim Dalinian Jones

PS: Apologies for the tardy posting, but I left the Strikers Rally for the Wiltshre countryside (to provide pix-&-vidz coverage the Radical Anthropology Group’s annual Avebury Camp and Solstice Eve Phoenix Performance), where I was off-the-grid for the weekend, and from whence I’ve just returned.
 

Footnotes

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