Unions should battle on after Royal Mail sell-off

Trade Unions

The postal workers’ CWU union is positive about the deal, insisting that it has significant protection against asset stripping

The government has given billionaire Daniel Kretinsky the green light to buy International Distribution Services, the company that owns Royal Mail, for £5.3 billion.

His EP Group is the latest owner to try and squeeze a profit out of Britain’s chaotic parcel delivery market.

Privatisation was supposed to give Royal Mail that chance when the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition sold it off in 2013. But since then, the firm has repeatedly failed to make money—despite paying dividends to shareholders and bonuses to bosses.

And all the while, conditions for workers and the quality of the service has gone down the pan. Postal workers have simply been tossed from one owner to the next without any say in the matter.

Kretinsky made his fortune buying up undervalued companies in markets he thought had a future. Among his collection of firms, he owns a portion of West Ham football club, Sainsbury’s supermarket and several European retail chains.

For now, he pledges that he wants to invest in Royal Mail for the long term.

The postal workers’ CWU union is positive about the deal. It insists that Kretinsky has signed up to significant protection against asset stripping and breaking up the company.

And it says that both it and the government now have a greater say in how the firm will be run.

Kretinsky says that he has no plans for compulsory redundancies, and instead wants to expand the workforce.

That’s because Royal Mail is desperately short of staff and is failing to meet its legal duty to deliver mail within certain time limits. Ofcom, the postal regulator, last week fined Royal Mail £10.5 million for missing delivery targets for first and second class mail.

CWU union leader Dave Ward says that up to 11,000 part time workers will have the option to become full time. And employment conditions for as many as 20,000 staff on inferior terms will be brought in line with the rest of the workforce.

But markets change and so do bosses’ agendas.

That’s why the union needs to remain on guard against layoffs and changes to conditions, says Parcel Force union rep Gary.

“If in the future, the firm announces compulsory redundancies, we need to go straight to a strike ballot.

“Current management want to drive out all the people who’ve worked for Royal Mail for twenty-plus years, like me, and replace them with a cheaper, more compliant workforce.”

The only way to guarantee Royal Mail jobs and turn it into a high quality service is to renationalise it. That’s something that workers and the public both agree on.

But selling the firm on to yet another owner doesn’t take us any closer to that goal.