When the company sent the struck work to Liverpool for sorting, postal workers there refused to touch it. When some were disciplined for this action--deemed unofficial by the bosses--workers in other areas refused to handle the mail and walked off the job in solidarity. By May 24, 19 mail centers and 72 delivery offices from all corners of the United Kingdom had joined the strike.

With a backlog of 50 million letters sitting in sealed post boxes and solidarity action spreading countrywide, Royal Mail bosses backed off. They agreed to negotiations over proposed changes and withdrew disciplinary action against the Liverpool workers.

As workers walked out around the country, the big-business London Evening Standard bemoaned, "It is threatening to develop into the first national postal strike for five years." Government officials, alarmed by the solid response by postal workers, called for an end to the dispute, arguing that it threatened to disrupt delivery of polling and postal registration cards in time for the June 7 general election.

Speaking at a CWU rally in North London May 26, Liverpool strike committee member Jane Loftus declared, "In seven days, look what we’ve achieved, not by ‘legal’ channels but by our strikes. That’s the best way to defend ourselves and our jobs."

She was met with applause, cheers, and foot-stomping from the postal workers, who were mostly from the local North London delivery office (NDO) in Islington.

Like other mail depots in London, the NDO, which employs 1,600 workers, is threatened with closure and with jobs being moved to outer areas, beyond the reach of most of the workforce. NDO union members are balloting for strike action against this job attack. Their rally followed a spirited demonstration of around 300 workers against the closure.

Angie Mulcahy, a postal worker from East London, told Militant reporters why a delegation from her depot had brought solidarity to the NDO demonstration. "This has been building up for two years," she said. "The Royal Mail has been bullying us and there have been local disputes all over the place, on different issues. Now we’ve had enough. It has come to breaking point. That’s why there were rolling spontaneous actions across the country this week." The Daily Mail has reported that half the days lost to strikes last year came in the postal services.

Mulcahy remarked, "They are trying to run this public service for profit and they’re pushing us more and more. They want to privatize it." Her workmate John said, "They’re ignoring the union. We represent the will of the workers. We’re not necessarily against changes, but they can’t just impose them."

Derek Francis said, "I’m on the demonstration today because if we don’t do something they’ll close us down. We came out on strike with Watford and Liverpool as basic solidarity. If we don’t support them, how can we expect their backing when we take action ourselves?"

Hasain Miye, a postal worker from another part of north London, joined the NDO demonstration. I think they want to close the NDO because the union there is strong," said Miye. He pointed to a common Royal Mail practice of employing casual (temporary) labor, sometimes on a daily basis. He estimated that around 150 of the 200 casual workers at the NDO joined the strike, even though they are not in the union. The CWU in London is also considering a strike ballot of 15,000 delivery workers for a shorter, five-day workweek and improved earnings.

Under a headline "Postmen: Back To The Bad Old Days," the Daily Mail complained, "The strikes recall the dark days of militancy in the old-style public services. Other recent union actions have the same roots. A damaging series of strikes by London Tube [subway] workers is continuing and there was a one-day stoppage earlier this week by college lecturers."
 

LONDON--Paul Davies, Communist League candidate for the London constituency of North Southwark and Bermondsey in the general elections, joined a picket line of striking postal workers as well as a Communication Workers Union demonstration to protest the threatened closure of the North London delivery office.

Davies, a member of the Transport and General Workers’ Union at the General Motors IBC plant in Luton, has rallied with his co-workers against thousands of job cuts by GM. "In the face of rising layoffs, the labor movement needs to fight for jobs for all through a shorter working week with no loss of pay," Davies said.

Speaking at a May 25 Militant Labor Forum in London, Davies stated, "The rolling strike of the postal workers shows how the deepening assaults of the rulers are driving the resistance by working people. The strike by the postal workers is an example to other workers.

"This is particularly important today when the capitalist rulers are going after ‘public sector spending.’ What they mean is the social wage that working people have won in struggle, and in this case the right to free health care and hospital treatment. They want to go after our social wage and drive down the value of what all workers earn."

Davies pointed to Cuba, where workers and farmers made a revolution and hold political power, as an example of how working people can put an end to the entire system of exploitation.
--S.H.  
 
 
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