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CWU TV News | March For The Alternative: Saturday 26th March 2011

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:02:43 +0000

TUC’s March For The Alternative National March and Rally will take place on Saturday 26th March in London. All trade unionists along with other organisations and groups will come together to stand up against public spending cuts and the Conservative and Lib Dem Governement. CWU Senior Deputy General Secretary Tony Kearns explains why it is important that all CWU members, as well as activists, attend this vital key event.

Questions to the accounts

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:46:05 +0000

LTB 393/10 sought questions to the CWU Accounts.
The LTB stated that responses to the questions would be circulated to Branches on the site of Annual Conference. Arrangements are being made for this to happen, however we are able to send these as a pdf attachment to this LTB in advance in case this assists any Branch.
Any enquiries regarding this Letter to Branches should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary Department on telephone number 020 8971 7237 or email address sdgs@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely

Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

You can download the Questions to the accounts (83)

Election of: Royal Mail Divisional Representative Substitute – NORTH EAST

CWUTV: Episode 4

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:19:59 +0000

The latest episode of CWUTV features an in-depth look into the important role organisers look set to play in the future of the CWU. We hear from young people who are doing just that and discuss its importance with senior CWU officials. We also provide an overview of the critical on going discussions around the changes and challenge that CWU members working for BT face future.

On the sofa with Emma this month are CWU Deputy General Secretary Telecoms, Andy Kerr and CWU National Organising Secretary, John East. We also take a look at a round up of the top news from the CWU this month.

CWUTV: Episode 4

Strikes on as Postal Workers Overworked by Management-Rigged Systems

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:25:30 +0000

Thousands of postal workers are striking across the country today (Wednesday) as Royal Mail continues to disregard the concerns of CWU over cuts to jobs and services and a lack of willingness to negotiate on modernisation. The CWU has today accused Royal Mail of abusing work measurement systems to increase workloads to breaking point.

Dave Ward, Communication Workers Union deputy general secretary, said: “Postal workers are more productive than ever handling more mail with a diminishing workforce. Stress is now reaching breaking point while morale is at an all-time low.

“The company is rigging the work measurement systems to overload postal workers. Budgets are cut year on year and delivery rounds are then overloaded to match that budget. These systems were introduced to accurately determine workloads but Royal Mail are rigging the systems to ensure they meet their panic-driven cost cuts.

“The company knows the workload is unacceptable but are bullying people to attempt to tackle impossible workloads” he added.

The strikes have developed over Royal Mail’s attempts to impose budget cuts, reducing jobs and services. The CWU continues to call for meaningful negotiations on modernisation, as previously agreed in 2007. Only this week, as a result of the strikes to date, has Royal Mail finally offered the union talks.

Dave Ward said: “The offer of talks is welcomed, but the company has to have real dialogue. To this point, all they do is lecture us on their plans. In the meantime they continue to impose cuts and unacceptable workloads and so the strikes will continue. We repeat our offer of a no strike deal if the company takes a step back on this round of cuts and negotiates on the bigger picture of the much needed modernisation of the company. In 2007, both parties agreed to negotiate on all aspects of modernisation and Royal Mail must return to that approach.”

The CWU has repeatedly expressed serious concerns over the appalling way that postal workers are being treated by Royal Mail. “The bullying, managerial culture in the company is now reaching very dangerous proportions and we fear for the wellbeing and safety of our members. Examples of this are increasing numbers of employees facing unfair conduct action when they simply cannot complete the work tasks demanded by managers, within the allocated working time,” added Mr Ward.

The CWU has uncovered lots of examples where workers are increasingly harassed when they are genuinely ill and of managers dismissing employees for issues that would only trigger informal counselling in most other companies. There is also the deliberate tactic of taking people off of pay if they dare question management on legitimate work related issues.

Dave Ward said: “The simple way to resolve these issues and bring an end to strike action is for Royal Mail to agree to negotiations which agree an approach to modernisation taking into account job security fears and stop the unagreed imposed cuts.”