By a BT worker A NEW union has been formed uniting members of the National Communications Union and the Union of Communication Workers. will organise 300,000 members, mainly in BT and the Post Office.
The UCW has had a unity policy for 70 years. The left has fought for it since the battle and has against the separation of the post office from British Telecom.
However, as with most recent union mergers, the main force behind unity has been the fall in membership of both unions -especially the NCU. UCW decline is now beginning to accelerate due to competition to the Post Office, commercialisation and electronic mail.
Falling membership inevitaHe It will be ten years this year since the Murdoch launched his onslaught on media workers.
The long bitter dispute set the tone of a decade of Tory attacks on the trade union.
Now the millionaire tycoon is now making friendly noises in the direction of Blair's "New Labour"
On January 21 the National Union of Journalists is organising a march to demand rights for all trade unbly causes great financial problems - for the bureaucrats in particular.
The situation in both unions is balanced. The UCW has one of the most militant memberships of any unions in western Europe, as measured by strike It days lost.
Right wing
But its leadership under Alan Johnson is not only highly bureaucratised and right wing, but riding high after the Tory climbdown over privatisation. The leadership are solidly proBlair and anti-clause IV. The left is weak and disorganised.
The NCU on the other hand has little record of industrial militancy outside the 1983-7 privatisation period. Local action is rare.
It is internally unstable and polarised owing to the existence of an electorally powerful Broad ionists, including Maria Hoyle who was sacked from Murdoch's Today in November for organising for workers' rights.
The union wants to rebuild Left which has been in office three times since 1983.
Its Broad Left is at a low ebb at the moment because a minority recently teamed up with the right wing and pushed through an agreement with BT for extended working hours.
The NCU's Labour Party and TUC delegations however are among the most left wing in the labour movement, voting to retain Clause IV at the Labour Party conference.
All the signs are that the combined leadership will now use the merger to undermine the relatively democratic regime in the NCU and to attack the Broad Left.
Already the right of candidates for national office to campaign for support is under threat.
The NCU left voted at its AGM to link up with the UCW left. The scene is set for a bruising battle.. organisation throughout the media and in every industry that has suffered similar attacks. It is encouraging support for the demonstration from all trade unionists. March to News International. Bring Banners
March for Union Rights Saturday 21 January Assemble 9.45 Tower Hill