ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPORT 2008

Please find below a brief report covering the major issues discussed at Annual Conference this year.

For ease of reference, they have been broken down into the relevant conferences.

General Conference

Future of Royal Mail

Conference carried the following emergency motion (E12) unanimously, and the Branch supported the motion:-

‘This Conference agrees that we are entering a critical period during which decisions will be made that will determine the future of the Royal Mail Group.

Successive Government failures, Postcomm’s recklessness and serious mismanagement by the board means the company is facing the prospect of terminal decline with unprecedented attacks on CWU members’ jobs, pensions, pay and conditions.

This outcome can only be avoided if the CWU and all its branches, reps and members are totally engaged in major political and industrial campaigns to secure our future.

The Postal Executive has already agreed to ballot CWU members for industrial action over the unacceptable imposition of pension reforms.  However, before a ballot timetable is set, Conference recognises that it is essential the Union fully understand the consequences of Royal Mail’s rationalisation plan.  This is with particular regard to a meeting with Royal Mail on the 27th May which highlighted the changing nature of Royal Mail’s plans and the likelihood of unprecedented office closures and the huge impact this will have on the jobs and lives of CWU members.  Therefore, in these circumstances it will be necessary to expand any national industrial action ballot to include other aspects of Royal Mail’s rationalisation plan to the affected membership.

The timetable for a ballot will be designed to maximise pressure on the company and the government and will be at the discretion of the Postal Executive. This will ultimately be determined by Royal Mail’s response to our demands for urgent negotiations and acceptable agreements on the following:

• Pensions
• The long term future of the Post Office Network
• The future of Mail Centre, Delivery and Distribution Networks
  

Furthermore, the Postal Group Conference fully endorses the Union’s policy and political campaign as agreed at General Conference covering the following key areas:

• Ensuring Government honour their Manifesto commitment and reject any calls for privatisation of the company.  The Government must ensure that Royal Mail Group remains a wholly publicly owned, end to end service provider, with the genuine opportunity to compete and increase revenue, providing high quality terms and conditions for the workforce.
• Oppose any attempt to break up the Royal Mail Group including the separation of Post Office Ltd.
• Continue to participate fully in the Independent Review and ensure that the outcome of the Review brings an end to unfair competition, secures a viable USO and maintains the highest possible service standards to the public in line with the CWU Submission.
• Call upon the Government to open up and review all aspects of the current funding package agreed with Royal Mail and provide the company with the future investment required.
• Ensure Government accept their responsibility, as the owner, towards employees’ pension arrangements by calling upon Royal Mail to reopen pension negotiations.
• Call upon government to make immediate changes to the Post Office board and put in place leaders who support the company’s social obligations and the government’s manifesto commitment.

The Postal Group Conference instructs the Postal Executive, all Field Officials, Branches and local Representatives to prioritise and achieve the aims and objectives of this Emergency Motion with immediate effect.

Postal Executive Council

Government Review/Privitisation/Funding of Labour Party

The following emergency motion E6 was also carried (Branch supported):-

Conference condemns the recent submissions by Postcomm and Royal mail to the Hooper review received at CWU HQ on 23rd May calling for privatisation of Royal Mail.

Conference further notes that within Royal Mail’s submission to the Hooper Review it states that Royal Mail may have to alter the pension scheme again within 3 years.

Conference reaffirms its total opposition to privatisation in any form. This includes outright privatisation, joint ventures, splitting the business and allowing private companies to take over parts of it or infusions of private capital. We demand that the Government rules out privatisation as a possible outcome of the review. Conference regards the issue of ownership as outside the terms of reference given to Hooper’s team.

Conference therefore instructs the NEC to launch an immediate unprecedented campaign amongst the public, politicians, business, media, and CWU members to maintain Royal Mail as 100% publicly owned company.

Conference further instructs the NEC to lobby the Government in order to achieve our vision of a wholly publicly owned Royal Mail – continuing to provide an end to end postal service in the interests of the public – with clearly defined social obligations that can operate in a commercial market with a level playing field, and where the cost of maintaining the USO is met by all.

Conference also instructs the NEC to apply pressure on the Government to force them to face up to their responsibility as the shareholder in order to protect and maintain the final salary pension scheme in line with other public sector workers.

Conference also instructs the NEC to lobby the Government to protect the Post Office Counter Network, including calling for a judicial review.

Conference further agrees that if the Government fails to agree to the full terms of this motion by March 2009, then the CWU membership will be balloted on whether they believe the Union should fund the Labour Party at the next General Election.

The NEC is instructed accordingly

                                                                                                  London South West Postal

                                                                                                  North/North West London

                                                                                                  South East London Postal & Counters

Labour Party Affiliation

The following motion was overwhelmingly defeated (Branch opposed on the basis of the content of motion E6 above):-

Conference is concerned that despite millions being donated to the Labour party by the CWU that the Labour Government has continued to carry out the previous Tory Government’s policies. Conference recognises that these policies directly conflict with CWU policy.

Conference regretfully believes that attempts to influence Labour Party policy have failed in all key areas of concern for our members such as:-

• The protection of agency workers,
• The public ownership of the Telecommunications and the Postal Industry
• Failure to introduce the Trade Union Freedom Bill

Conference therefore instructs the NEC to end funding the Labour Party and to campaign for a new Workers’ Party that would embrace socialist ideas based on public ownership of Postal and Telecoms industries and provide the needed political representation for our members.

Coventry

The Welsh Valleys

Postal Group Conference

Shorter Working Week

The following motion was sponsored by the Branch, and was overwhelmingly carried:-

Conference agrees that the joint working group (3) within phase (4) of the pay and modernisation agreement (Future Working) looks at developing proposals to introduce a shorter working week as one of the benefits of introducing new technology into the business.

This Conference instructs the incoming Postal Executive to mobilise an immediate campaign of the membership to highlight the needs to achieve a shorter working week as part of any final agreement on future working within the industry. If it is not possible to achieve a reduction of the shorter working week to a 35 hour week within these negotiations then the campaign shall continue and will be ongoing until we reach our goal of a gross 35 hour week with no loss of pay.

This campaign should include Voice articles, Leaflets, Posters, Postcards, Reps briefing materials, Website articles, Podcasts, Organised meetings of the membership and Reps throughout the country, Individual Letters to members via HQ or Branches etc This list is not exhaustive.

The Postal Executive is instructed accordingly.

Leeds No.1 Amal

Newcastle Amal

North East Divisional Committee

Bullying and Harassment

Conference unanimously carried the following motion:-

This conference condemns the misapplication of the bullying and harassment procedure and the corrupt investigations in a number of cases manufactured against the CWU in the workplace, most noticeably in Burslem. These actions are nothing more than union busting tactics being deployed by Royal Mail to target areas of poor industrial relations.

This conference is committed to protecting each workplace from bullying and harassment and agrees the following;

• That a review be conducted at a national level, independently chaired, into the attacks against the CWU in the workplace by Royal Mail carried out under the guise of bullying and harassment.
• That a fundamental review of the bullying and harassment procedure be conducted to achieve;
• a role for the CWU at the earliest point and a role throughout and not just at the conclusion of a Royal Mail investigation.
• contact made at Divisional Level immediately when a complaint is made against a CWU Representative or when consideration is being given to a formal investigation against a Representative.
• An end to the corrupt sham of so called ‘independent’ harassment investigators, who are nothing other than Royal Mail managers from a different location, and a return to bullying and harassment issues being dealt with in the workplace by the appropriate manager and CWU Representative.
• Launch a bullying and harassment awareness campaign amongst the membership highlighting Royal Mail’s union busting tactics.

The Postal Executive is instructed accordingly.

To be moved by:  Midland No.7

To be seconded by:  Midlands Divisional Committee

Anglia Divisional Committee

Coventry Area

Eastern No.3

Eastern No.5

Eastern No.6

Essex Amal

Gloucestershire Amal

London Divisional Committee

Northamptonshire Amal

Door to Door

Conference overwhelmingly carried the following motion:-

Conference agrees that door to door discussions and negotiations have been developing for the past 2/3 years exploring various different scenarios for remuneration for our members and exploring transferring door 2 door into workload to safeguard jobs in the future. However through no fault of our negotiators these discussions have resulted in a stale mate with Royal Mail. One proposal that has not been fully explored is a buy out of door to door linked with the onset of automation within the postal industry. Therefore Conference agrees that the PEC explores this possibility in line with the discussion document circulated by the Outdoor department that has been widely circulated from March of this year with a view of entering into negotiations with Royal Mail to achieve an agreement as close as possible, if not better than the monies outlined in the discussion document.

The Postal Executive is instructed accordingly.

Leeds No.1 Amal

North East Divisional Committee

Conclusion

The Branch sponsored a number of motions to this year’s Conference, and entered into a number of debates, with some delegates speaking for the first time at Conference.

All delegates were once again a credit to the Branch, who played an active part in Conference throughout the week.

It is impossible to list and reproduce all motions submitted to Conference – I have mentioned the major ones above and also reproduced the text due to the serious nature of them.

If any member wishes further information please do not hesitate to contact me at the Branch office.

John Woodhouse

Branch Secretary