Bosses' bid to stamp on postal
Hard right guns for soft Todd
IN THE 1987 General Elec-: Lion. Thatcher declared that because the mail service had the word "Royal" in its name it could not be sold off. Instead the strategy, it seems, is to run the business down to a minimum service and allow the private sector to take up the
Two things have to he done if this strategy is to be sucessful. Firstly the Union of Communication Workers (L'CW) needs to be driven into the ground, and secondly the monopoly has to be lified. So Tar the first has been reasonably sucessful and with the help of UCW General Secretary Alan Tuffin, management have heen ahle to push through measures that have cut costs and masively increased productivity.
However over the lastiwo years. there has heen a growing militancy and determination at the hase of the union. This year there have already been 250 unofficial stoppages the majority of which have resulted in victory for the postal workers involved. Formany UCW member the sell-out over the shorter working weck agreement last year was the last straw, and at the conference last May. Tuttin and the Executive had a rough rdc THE UNANIMOUS vote of the Executive of the Transport and general Workers Union (TGWU) to support the Kinnock/Hattersley ticket for the Labour leadership has delt a blow to the Benn/Heffer campaign and, by strengthening the new realists, to the labour movement as a whole.
A battle between the right und the left has been gong on in the TGWU since Ron Todd beat George Wright for General Secretary five years ago, with bittet disputes at regional as well as national level ovcr the appointment of Regional secretaries and complaints over balloting rigging. This was intensified when the from motions put by normally con
This delermined mood has obviously worried management. Any threat to Tuffin is a threat to their overall plan. Clerly, they needed to inflict a large scale defcat at the base of the union. The argument over the Difficult Areas Recruitment Supplement (DRAS) gave them an opportunity to attempt to
The conference in May had thrown out this proposal and called for strike action to defeat it. Tuffin s main concom over DRAS however was not the agreement itself but that it had been imposed by management without consultation and negotiation with the union x excculive.
He had little choice but to call for strike action in the hope that management would give him back his right to negotrate: Management quickly seized the opportunity to provoke a national strike through the use of casuals and suspending right lost their majority in January of this year.
With the IGWU Executive. however, the terms left and right ue a bit misicading. The new "let" majority includes the Ron Todd wing of the union who are within the political camp of new realism and have fought for the union to support the Kinnock/Hattersley ticket.
The left victory in the clections therefore was more a victory for the Todd leadership over the hard right, who have an organised grouping within the union with links into EEPTU business unionism, than a shift to the left against mainstream new realism.
The most serious blow for the right was the removal in the last clections of Executive Committee
T m workers postal workers for relusing to handie mail from an office that was Both sides were taken ahack by the strength of the support and the solidity of the strike. Management clearly wanted a drift hack to work A union leader called Tuffin, Was given to huffin' and puffin, At the end of the day, The boss got his way, And Tuffin, the bastard, got nuffin!
earlier on, to isolate the more: militant offices and hammer them. As 100, 000 postal workers downed letters and made preparations for a long dispule, Tuffin came up with an agreement which gave the bosses just what they wanted. He won his negotiation rights over DRAS - a very minor concession from management's POINt OF VICW and promptly washed his hands of the strike by telling local branches to negotiate a return to work on the basis of a 'back to work agreement" ratified by both sides. Among other things. the agree mont stated that casuals would be use lo clear the backlog, that private contractors would be brought in to move mail, and that chairman, and leader of the hard right, Brian Nicholson, who was beaten by Steve Riley. a lettwinger from Fords; Since his defeat Nicholson has Tought to re-establish the hard right majonty in the exccutive. His recent coup was to establish that Steve Riley was 48p in arrears of contributions when he stood against him in the clection a sign that the right are well connected. since they would need access to regional financial rocords to establish such a thing. The arrears are a technicality unsing from the fact that Fords do not make checkoff paymenis for union dues when an employee is off sick, When the right wing raised this at the September meeting of the cxccutive it resulted in what apilan office reccived work from one on striko. UCW Headquarters would be contacted for instructions on moving it.
The green fight was giveh for many local leaderships for organisc a return to work, and despile a fociing of betrayal many workers felt they had little choice but to retum. As more workers retumed the more militant offices stayed out, determined to gain something from the two week dispute.
Without the national support though it was inevitable that they would have to go back with little to show, Just days after the settic meril was announced, five motions of no confidence wore passed against Tallin. As the casuals start to come in to clear the backiog (in some offices for the first timc), many more such motons can bo expected.
For the left in the unuse: there Is a massive opportunity to build a fight against the collaborationist line of the union leadership, to challenge for positions at local and national level, to organise agains! casual and part time tabour, 10 build support for offices that di takc action, and to explain to members the strategy that Ties hebind management cactions.
Ted Glenn pears to have heen a damaging quid pro quo". Ron Todd upheld Steve Riley's union card and his position on the Executive, on the basis of past practice; but then, after the right wing had walked out in protest, the meeting, with only the "left" in attendance. proceeded to vote unanimons/y for the Kinnock/Hattersley ticket.
There was never any possibilty of the Executive voting for Benn/Heffer; but many had thought that a vote for Prescott was a possibility, Few, however. expected a unanimous vote forthe "dream ticket'. A real left alternative in the TGWU will have to be built on a much firmer basis.
Alan Thorner