Oxford Posties Strike

oxford posties | 06.04.2004 19:21 | Social Struggles | Oxford

About 100 people joined a rally to show solidarity with Oxford posties at the Cowley sorting office at 5 pm today; not a bad turn out considering it was called with about 2 hours notice.

The issues which led to the strike should have been sorted out last week, if only managers were capable of saying 'sorry; we messed up'. The post workers walked out last week after members were seriously bullied by a group of non-unionised 'casuals' who appear to have been hired by the management to break the back of the union here. These casuals went as far as harassing the 11 year old son of a black worker, following him to school and shouting abuse.

Last Thursday at a meeting between CWU reps and management there was ample opportunity for management to disown and fire those casuals who were responsible for the bullying. Instead they have been given contracts, loads of overtime, and were scabbing away inside the sorting office while the rally was going on.

Representatives from the FBU, Unison, NUJ and the Trades council brought messages of solidarity to the postal workers at the rally. It is recognised that this dispute is about the right to organise to defend human rights at work, and that what is at stake is the union itself and the future of public services in general. The strike has spread to the Headington office, and other offices are likely to come out in support. There is no justification for the harassment which is being meted out, or for the cowardice of the management for supporting and rewarding the bullying tactics.

oxford posties

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

This Union Is Untouchable

06.04.2004 21:18

So once again the post office management think they can find a way to drive a wedge into the CWU and weaken the postal workers. Their latest method seems to be to use casual workers with menaces. They should know by now that the postal workers in Oxford will not lie down in front of their cheap tactics. It's time for the management to eat humble pie yet again and accept that they will never break the union in Oxford.

richarddirecttv

link to union

07.04.2004 09:38

Communication Workers Union:

http://www.cwu.org.uk

kurious

Bast**d unions

07.04.2004 11:04

Tell me when there is another 'solidarity' rally, I'll turn up and throw bricks at the bloody lazy striking posties. We are conststantly being subject to strikes from this bloody union, and I am utterly fed up with it. No sympathy from me. I need my mail on time, and if this lot can't be relied upon to do a half decent job, then sack the lot of them and replace tham all with casuals.

Tom D

A Fairy Tale

07.04.2004 11:44

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived in a valley far, far away in the mountains, the most contented kingdom the world haad ever known. It was called "Happy Valley", and it was ruled over by a wise old king named Otto. And all his subjects flourished and were happy, and there were no discontents or grumblers, because wise king Otto had had them all put to death along with the trade union leaders many years before. And all the good happy folk of Happy Valley sang and danced all day long. And anyone who was for any reason miserable or unhappy or who had any difficult personal problems was prosecuted under the "Happiness Act".

Rest of the story here:

http://arago4.tn.utwente.nl/stonedead/albums-cds/sketches/monty-pythons-previous-record/fairy-tale.html

Monty

Target the agencies supplying Scab Workers

07.04.2004 13:52

When the binmen in Brighton went on strike a few years ago the compnay bought in Agency workers to break the strike. After a concerted action of occupying temp agency offices and locking onto to scab bin lorries all the agencies pulled out.

Best of luck!

Brighton Resident

errr... what?

07.04.2004 16:07

If it wasn't for the fact that I have a job, I'd go and volunteer for free at the postal centre. Anything to undermine the bloody strikes which have seen our postal service reduced to a farce. If the regular employees are not willing to do the job, and agencies can't do it cos zealots illegally squat their premises, then what can be done eh?

Tom D

If you didn't have a job...

07.04.2004 16:43

...you'd volunteer for free? Hahahaha! Sure you would! Well then there's a simple solution to your little problem mate: quit your job, and go apply for a new one at the post office. Then we'll see how much you like working under the conditions posties have to put up with.
Ignorant tosser.

Ian

the ignorant tosser

07.04.2004 18:20

..would obviously not go and volunteer for free; but didn't realise that such a statement would be taken literally. I suppose that makes me an 'ignorant tosser' as well.

Tom D

yeah, tosser

08.04.2004 11:18

If you think the casuals, which you aspire to be, are doing a better job than proper posties, how come all that mail was found dumped this week (Oxford Mail, Tuesday). It wasn't the posties proper wot dumped it.....They were on strike!

jojo

Less of the name calling

08.04.2004 11:48

Can people refrain from calling each other names ?

I realize that passions run high about this issue, but calling people names doesn't improve the quality of an argument. It's also kinda dull to read.

If your ideas are that strong, then they can stand for themselves without you needing to slag off holders of opposing ideas. Even if you do think they're full of shit :-).

Cheers

anonymous coward

Excellent job

17.04.2004 18:39

In my experience Oxford Post Office workers do an excellent job when they are not on strike, but really these strikes are not good for their reputation any more than for their postal business in general, as some of the above comments show.

Plant