Tuffin's Christmas sell-out yet they have built no alternative creased the resentment. struggle and conflict. ficers and Postal Assistars and a couple of days after announcing the outlines ot the proposed settlement for the postal workers they sent out a circular headed thing at all) will automaticallv he €7.50 a bonus scheme. Ther is not much doubt ahou which way they will vote when the The group in the union which seems to have been almost completely excluded from the negotiations is the people who staff the counters and administrative of- fices. The government intervened, tel- ling post office managerent who oblig ingly confided to the union's negotators that a reduction in hours for post office clerical workers would be an unwelcome example to the civil service. The union leatlership scems to have been taken aback by the bitterness of the Postil OF to the union. Not only has the balance of but the long standing strains between the derical and counter grades and the uni- form grades have been deepened. Divi- postal workers in big urban offices where higher and those in rural offices where peopic have to ger by on a low basic small bonuses or nu bonus at all under week better off They will have one and a sions have been exacerbated belween bonuses and overtime have always been The later who reccive either halfhours off their working weck by No- vember and stand to gain from any new most striking Icature abour the UCW s leadership is its homogencity. Ti faces no real challenge from the Ictt — the Broad Tell is tiny in a onion of 150,000 By conceding this defeat with only the slightest hint of industrial action the lea- dership has done considerable danage the present scheme (22,000 receive no. forces with management been worsened, proposals are put to ballot. to say that Tuffin was widely known not to support the demand for a three hour terrified of Icading any kind of big struggle. In The Post of 12 December he wrote: "Unless there was no alremative we were not going to allow our members worse off in absolute terms as a result of changes, are being offered a buy-out scheme amounting to €3,000 to be paid April; the reduction in working hours vember, UCW members will be balloted in January on whether they accept the for post office management, the union's newspaper The Post is full of windy ar- ticles by Tuftin describing the deal as 'a majorsuccess, It is much more accurate roducton and no strings. He was also 14 council feels much the sanic way. The bonus scheme and a change in the rates According to some estimates twerty- one per cent of postal workers will be the deal. Workers in some of the big ur- ban offices, who stand to lose up to £30 per weck when the bonus system over threc years. The changes in the bonus system, will come into effect in will begin some six months later in No- Despite what is a very obvious victory in the working weck for all UCW grades in the post office at no cost to the mem- bership, general secretary Alan Tuffin lion for postal workers, an hour for calerers and nothing for the counter and clerical grades. On top of this, postal workers in the larger city offices will suffer a sharp cur in their take home pay because of the introduction of a new INSTRUCTED By the 1987 annual con- ference to obtain a three hour reduction negotiated a one and a half hour reduc- to become another Thatcher target". Undoubtedly the entire tor payment of overtime.
15 ported from France in 1986, and that building in the 1950s and 1960s. Already £25 million worth of clectricity was im- The international distribution of clec- tricity, at least on a European scale, is a workers. As with many other industries today, it means that striking workers in any one county can be faced with simply switching the supply source to If the energy grids develop. it will be very difficult for a mineworkers' strike anywhere in Lu- the French Have supplied clectricity to Wesl Germany, Holland and Traly, as well as Britain, and the trend towards rope to pur the lights out again. Already internationalisation of supply will con- The internarionalisation of the encrgy: business means that cnergy workers arc how going to have to come to terms with losses in each country can play us off against one another, Unfortunately, in tie perrssary co-ordinarion of activity if ordination and links — otherwise the this industry as in many others, our international links are way behind those Ideally, there is no reason why we shouldn't fight for one chergy union for all European energy workcis. In is often too late to generate we have to do it ad hoc — for example. the kind of links that wore made with The fight for an international link-up French and other miners during the miners strike: Imagine the power that would havc been created had the NUM bec part of a Europcan-wide union capable of challenging pit closures on a of chergy workers should start with a fight for a unification of energy workers in Britain. Thatcher's plans to privatise electricity and the mines poses the nced ity would have more clour than the old This is a demand which should be fought A triple alliance of coal, gas and clectric- industrial alliance of coal, rail and steel. for by the rank and file throughour the The rank and file should begin the task of coordinating the opposition to privatisation, to over- come the sectional divisions which make the struggle against anti-working claes plans more difficult — on both a ma- for a united strüggle of ehergy workers. amount is likely to increase each year, problem of international Threat to European tional and incornational level threat to another country. Europe-wide basis! energy industry, serious the industries, writes Yorkshire miner HM GREENAWAY, requires a alliances of the coal and electricity supply trade union response involving the building of national and The planned privatisation