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Students: support the postal workers! Don't be used as scabs!

In 2007, ENS took the lead in organising support for the national postal workers’ dispute within the student movement. As postal workers prepare another national strike (starting this Thursday and Friday), we are preparing to provide solidarity again.

ENS steering committee member Katherine McMahon is submitting this motion to her SU. Other SUs should feel free to adapt and pass it. Some of it is based on a policy passed by the University of Sussex SU in 2007, which is available here. For the statement ENS released at the time of the 2007 dispute, click here.

See below for our statement in support of the strike.

Support the postal workers! Don’t be used as scabs!

Postal workers organised in the CWU union have voted overwhelmingly (76% on a turnout of nearly 70%) for national strike action against ongoing attacks by Royal Mail management against workers. The first days of strike action are scheduled for Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd.

The strike is in response to “modernisation” plans by Royal Mail, which essentially involved making postal workers work harder, longer and for less. There has been an increase in “cross functioning”, whereby managers make workers of one grade do the work of another grade with no increase in pay. Local post offices still face closure, resulting in potential further job losses. Workers’ routines are being disrupted, as postal workers are reallocated to new walks at no notice and the number of casual workers increases.

Students should support the postal dispute not only out of basic solidarity with people fighting for their livelihoods but also because it is, in essence, a dispute for the heart-and-soul of the notion of public services. The dispute poses the question of whether the postal service should be run democratically by workers and users, in the interests of public need, or by unaccountable managers in the interests of profit. Precisely the same question, in fact, which is posed over and over again in the education sector by student struggles around issues like fees and course cuts. If the postal workers win, it will drive back the New Labour project (which is certain to be continued by a future Tory government) of swallowing up and privatising what remains of public services in Britain. The “inconvenience” suffered by people who may receive their mail a little later than unexpected is unfortunate but hardly a reason to oppose the strike; withdrawing their labour is the only real weapon available to workers who want to assert their right to have a say in how their industry and workplace is run. Constant media focus on the “inconvenience” caused by the strike - rather than the management attacks that motivated it - indicates nothing except the ruling-class bias of the mainstream press.

There is also a significant likelihood that, as Royal Mail attempts to break the strike and ultimately smash the power of the union within the company, students may be used as scab labour. Reports indicate that Royal Mail are in the process of recruiting (mainly through agencies like Manpower) an army of up to 30,000 casual workers in order to act as scabs. It is in fact illegal for managers to hire casual staff to do the work of striking workers, but Royal Mail intends to get around this fact by claiming that the 30,000 are just the normal casual workers they hire every year to cope with increased seasonal demand around Christmas. Except this year, they’re hiring them in October. Suspicious…

Although the pressure to get part-time work of any kind to fund ourselves through our studies is increasing, students should not allow themselves to be used as pawns of Royal Mail management in their effort to break the strike and smash the union. Do not take casual work for Royal Mail and, if you’re already working as a casual in the postal service, join the CWU and refuse to cross picket lines! Student Union-run job shops should not advertise casual vacancies for Royal Mail, or promote the agencies (such as Manpower) being used to recruit scabs.

The postal strike is a battle between two different visions of society and whether the needs of people or profit should come first. Students have a very immediate interest in taking a side. We should side with the postal workers.

What you can do

1. Take a student delegation to your nearest picket line - starting this Thursday or Friday. If you would like to find out where your nearest picket line is, or get in touch with other activists to go down with, please email us at  education.not.for.sale@gmail.com

2. Move a motion in your student union or campaigning group.

3. Get a speaker. We can put you in touch with CWU activists who will be more than happy to come to your group. Email us for more info.

4. Do a collection at your meeting or round your college. As the strikes go on, the union will need money for its national strike and hardship funds. Even £5 or £10 will be much appreciated. If you can organise a benefit gig or other fundraising event, even better!
Again, get in touch if you want to know where to take it or send it.