By a postal worker TIME IS running out on Post Office privatisation. After three months of talking, the cabinet is still divided.
The consultation period has shown widespread support for the public sector option. It has united all major opposition parties and a handful of Tory backbenchers.
Do the Tories risk the partial privatisation option, and face down all opposition with a watered down version of their proposals, or do they retain the Post Office in the public sector?
With pressure on the Tories mounting over sleaze in government the last thing they want is a bloody nose over this.
However it would not be the first time that the Tories have pursued an unpopular policy in the name of dogma: Heseltine's Tory party conference speech appealed to that.
There is also significant support for privatisation from sections of big business and of course the Post Office board themselves.
An announcement of privatisation by the government should be met by an immediate response.
The campaign against privatisation has so far been concentrated on encouraging letter writing and lobbying MPs. There should be a massive demonstration against privatisation.
Throughout the summer there has been an impressive number of local activities. A national focus is now needed. As the demonstrations in support of the miners in October 1992 showed, hundreds of thousands can be brought onto the streets.
But we also need to draw the lessons of that campaign. When the mass demonstrations stopped, the Tory revolt crumbled. of his proposal to all union general șecretaries, seeking their support in winning endorsement for it at next year's TUC and Labour Party conferences, and a commitment that the next Labour government would introduce such legislation.
This will scarcely delight Tony Blair or his supporters in the union bureaucracy, who have gone out of their way to disavow any intention of repealing the Tory anti-union laws, and would dearly love to keep their distance from the issue.
The campaign will be won or lost by a successful mobilisation of all those in opposition in the first few weeks of any announcement.
It can give postal workers the confidence to use all options available - including strike action.
This kind of campaign is a million miles from the minds of leaders of the UCW postal workers union. Lacking stamp of authority It is likely that a major national demonstration would be called as an end in itself, with the tried, tested and failed methods of parliamentary procedure - petitioning and lobbying Tories - the next part of the campaign.
Any announcement that the Post Office will be privatised needs to be a rallying point of all those UCW members who want to fight. TRADE UNION NEWS Pressure needs to be applied by UCW branches on the leadership of the union to carry out conference policy of building massive opposition - including giving consideration to strike action. COMPANY directors have received an average 6.1 percent increase in pay in the past year, according to a new survey.
Top bosses have been awarding themselves risis more than three times the rate of inflation, while average pay settlements in the engineering industry have been running at just 2.65 percent.
Almost a quarter of all engineering workers saw their pay frozen during 1993.