Postal round up Day One Tuesday

“This is your victory,” DGSP Terry Pullinger told CWU Postal Conference 2018 as he opened proceedings in Bournemouth this morning.

Fresh from the ground-breaking achievement of the Four Pillars and Pay National Agreement, delegates were in an upbeat and positive mood as they began their deliberations today.

And Terry’s curtain-raiser highlighted the remarkable transformation over the past couple of years, by reminding the audience of the “hard-line” position initially adopted by senior Royal Mail management back in 2016.

The business had proposed the abolition of a whole range of longstanding attendence and shift allowances, a sharp reduction in sick pay, the abolition of area delivery reps and a long list of other detrimental changes to terms and conditions.

“They thought it was the right time to take this union on – and we knew this would be the fight of our lives,” he said.

But, thanks to the “great spirit of unity, strength and determination,” that reps and members had shown throughout the Four Pillars campaign, the workers had prevailed, our DGSP continued.

And he paid tribute to the way that the whole union had come together and had “merged” traditional workplace organisational trade unionism with new media and digital communication.

“No-one’s doing it like we’re doing it,” he asserted, adding: “We are the greatest fighting union in this country.”

Looking forward, Terry urged delegates to “keep this spirit going,” telling them that the Four Pillars National Agreement provides the basis to “make this business grow as a great public service.

“And we’re in a position, like never before, to shape that positive future.”

———————–

As conference got down to business, training for our front line reps was a key theme of the early motions.

North East divisional rep Bob Maguire moved a proposition aiming to maximise the ability of our new reps to access the IR training that they need as quickly as possible after their appointments.

The motion, which was formally adopted by conference, seeks to expand the numbers of experienced CWU reps who can carry out and provide this training ground at a local level.

————–

Occupational training was another subject which delegates addressed today, giving their full support to Manchester & District’s motion on the Apprenticeship Levy.

Moving the proposition, Claire Drummond  highlighted the importance of ensuring that proper apprenticeships are set up across as many Royal Mail business units as possible, while London Postal Engineering delegate Cyril Onyejekwe also added his experienced opinion to the debate.

———————-

With the Four Pillars agreement set to herald a new culture in the workplace, other motions on training highlighted the end for raised awareness of stress and equality issues.

Portsmouth  District Branch secretary Ruth Harris won the support of conference for a joint retraining review for managers and reps in these vital areas, while another motion calling for reps to be trained on how to assist members diagnosed with terminal illnesses also received sympathy from the hall.

The latter motion was not formally adopted, however, but Carl Maden, speaking for the executive, did give an assurance that an information factsheet would be issued to reps on this matter.

——————-

Still on the subject of the new workplace culture, Guest speakers Sophie Bell and Jonathan Stathan gave an interesting presentation to conference about Royal Mail mediation.

Both Sophie and Jonathan are CWU members and Royal Mail employees who are on full-time secondment as mediators, assisting efforts to resolve workplace issues before they turn into disputes.

——————

Another pressing issue arising out of the new national agreement is the need to ensure our Property and Facilities workers are fully and equally included in the new pension arrangements.

London divisional rep Mark Palfrey moved a successful motion setting a September deadline to “secure an agreement that allows for these individuals to be treated the same as all other workers employed on Royal Mail Group.”

Mark insisted: “We have to send a strong signal to the business on this.”

Steve Hiscox, from Bristol & District Amal, and York & District Amal’s Tony Pedel moved similar propositions on weekend pay rates and Christmas bonuses respectively.