Strikes—escalation in Royal Mail, delay in civil service national action

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CWU union leaders announced further walkouts, but PCS leaders put off national action

Groups of civil service workers look set to soon join the fight against low wages, while Royal Mail postal workers have called six new days of action in December.

The announcements, from the PCS and CWU unions, present new opportunities to unite everyone who wants to beat the pay cuts afflicting every worker in Britain.

Leaders of the PCS civil servants’ union announced on Friday that they plan a programme of strikes by workers in some government departments.

The announcement followed votes by some 100,000 civil service workers last week in favour of strikes that beat the thresholds of the anti-union laws. The results of ballots in 126 different government employers amounted to an average of 86 percent for striking.

It was, as the PCS says, the highest strike vote in its history—and showed the mood to take action. If the 100,000 strike together, it would bring the pay fight right to the government’s door in a very visible, hard-hitting way.

But this is an argument that some activists are still trying to win among union officials. In a meeting on Friday, the PCS’s governing national executive committee (NEC) voted to call targeted action in some government departments.

These are in the Home Office, including the Border Force, across the Department for Transport and in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. But there are no concrete plans for national action.

It’s a serious mistake not to call all PCS members with a live mandate out before Christmas, and risks throwing away the momentum generated by the ballot campaign.

Socialist Worker supporters on the NEC won some backing for their proposal for two days of national strikes before Christmas among all departments with strike mandates. But they were defeated clearly in a vote. They also backed a proposal for one day of strikes together, but this was also heavily defeated.

NEC member Sarah Ensor told Socialist Worker she backed the call for national action. “We’ve got to have confidence in this massive vote—the biggest turnout and biggest yes for strikes,” she said.

“I’m hearing from union members in several departments that they want to do something. We’ve done this, we’ve got this big yes vote and now we need to go for it. We should be celebrating that and launching a fight against the government that starts with national action.”

PCS union leaders say they are open to strikes of all the union’s members but would prefer this to happen in coordination with strikes in other unions.

New Royal Mail strikes, announced by the CWU union on Thursday, are a good opportunity. CWU leaders announced strikes to take place on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December. These are on top of strikes already called for Thursday and Friday of next week,  and 30 November and 1 December.

They come after Royal Mail bosses declared yet another assault on postal workers. CWU leaders had previously called some strikes off, and promised a “de-escalation of tensions” amid talks with bosses. But this week Royal Mail bosses announced plans to push ahead with job cuts and moves to reduce letter deliveries to five days a week.

It’s a similar story in a pay fight in telecoms giant BT. There, CWU leaders say they are close to a deal, but that chief executive Philip Jansen is delaying its agreement.

CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr told CWU reps in a meeting on Wednesday he would give Jansen 48 hours before calling new strikes. But many union reps wanted action to keep the pressure up.

One of them, Matt, told Socialist Worker, “A lot of reps think Jansen is just stalling for time. We could have hit BT on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They want to stop messing about and get some strike dates in there.”

Along with rail workers, university workers, nurses and Scottish teachers, there are now some half a million people in Britain with a mandate for national strikes over pay. Together, they can encourage each other to fight, helping each other to win victories that make success easier for everyone.

Sarah said, “The rail workers and CWU members had already been out on strike when we were campaigning for our ballot. Their battles have shown you need to escalate, and PCS members were feeling a tremendous amount of union pride that we can do this.

“It’s brilliant if we can go out with others—but we can also lead the way and strike ourselves. We need to seize the day.”

• Support the CWU Royal Mail workers’ strike solidarity fund here