BY PETE KENNEDY AND JOHN HORNIMAN
MANCHESTER, England - A fight for workers' rights in the
workplace stopped all postal deliveries in the commercial and
downtown area here March 12.
More than 100 delivery workers, members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), began a sit-down strike action at the giant Oldham Road Royal Mail depot after the bosses attempted to readmit to the shop floor a manager who had been party to a threat of physical assault against a worker on the job. Royal Mail officials claimed the work stoppage was "unlawful."
To enthusiastic applause, all drivers, loading bay workers, and door staff also walked off the job in solidarity with delivery workers and joined the action, bringing the number involved to around 175.
The sit-down action continued for six hours while union officials negotiated with Royal Mail. When Royal Mail refused to guarantee that the manager involved would not be readmitted, strikers set up picket lines around the depot and began turning away deliveries. Picket signs won immediate support from passing traffic on the main Manchester to Oldham Road. "This is great!" agreed postal workers Dave Muirhead, 20, and Terry Coogan, 23, when the action started to roll.
"This is not just about one incident, its about the whole arrogant way managers treat us," said Denis, an older worker. Muirhead cited another incident involving the same manager. She had falsely informed Muirhead and Pete Kennedy that her husband was a police officer in the Drug Squad, and then proceeded to ask the two workers if they took illegal drugs.
The union representatives of hundreds of processing workers, the bulk of the depot, who sort mail for the surrounding region, stated that with the picket lines up, their members were not prepared to stay in the building and that they would join the action. At this point, the CWU regional officer informed the pickets that the CWU national office had called for a suspension of the picket lines until a meeting the following day when a new proposal would be considered. The roughly 25 workers still on the picket line discussed this and voted to lift the picket. While no guarantee was won, Royal Mail withdrew the attempt to deploy the manager in question on the delivery floor for now, and announced an investigation into workers' complaints. Most workers expressed the view that the union had been greatly strengthened through the action. "We showed them we are a force to be reckoned with," was a typical comment.
Coogan later told the Militant, "I was pleased and surprised at the level of unity shown. When the other workers walked out in solidarity it meant a lot to me, much more than I would ever have imagined. I felt we were all in it together. It was inspiring to see we could overcome the divisions and show we had a real union."
Pete Kennedy and John Horniman are members of the CWU at the Manchester Delivery Office.