UNELECTED JUDGE TRAMPS ON WORKERS' RIGHT TO STRIKE: stand by the posties!

An unelected High Court judge today trampled basic, democratic workers' rights in the muck, as he rushed to the defence of absentee multi-millionaire Royal Mail boss, Rico Back.

Mr Justice Swift was quick to ban the right of 110,000 postal workers to go ahead with strike action in defence of their jobs, dignity at work and the vital public services they deliver, despite 97.1% of them voting for such action, in a landslide 76% turnout in the ballot.

This upper-class representative of the rich and powerful - who has the brass neck to be adorned with the title 'Justice' Swift - was obscenely hasty in his defence of the profiteers who've taken over the reins in Royal Mail, only to shred the Four Pillars Agreement signed with the CWU union a year ago. 
As CWU postal section leader Terry Pullinger rightly, angrily, declared, "The Courts of Justice are here to defend millionaires and the establishment."

Members of the CWU are raging at the outrageous accusation that their union is guilty of "improper interference" during the strike ballot in September,  in what the bewigged dictator called "a form of subversion of the ballot"
His bogus accusations were based on the claim the union had encouraged a Yes vote, and that some members opened their ballot papers at work rather than in the privacy of their homes. 

Not One of 110,000 Complained! 

As CWU leaders from every region of the country spelled out, not one single member of the 110,000 workforce ever complained to the independent scrutineers about interference in the ballot, or about being pressurised by the CWU, or any other objection to how this phenomenally successful exercise in mass democracy was conducted. 

The brutal truth is that Swiss-based Rico Back and his unelected Royal Mail Group board are hellbent on smashing the working conditions and jobs of these workers, hoping to scrap 6-days-a-week delivery, renege on the agreed transition to a 35-hour week by 2021 without loss of pay, and create an insecure Parcelforce operation modelled on the gig economy, bogus self-employment and zero hours contracts  - as practised by Rico Back already on the European continent. 

The equally ugly reality is that this boardroom of vandals fear the impact of united strike action prior to Black Friday and Christmas, and have employed the services of the class-ridden judiciary to invent stories of irregularities and ban such strikes. 

A Threat to All Workers 

The entire trade union movement needs to awaken to the profound significance of this assault on the CWU and its membership. 
It's an assault on the right to campaign as a union; the right to vote and uphold that vote;  indeed the right to strike.  
The wider unions need to rally behind the CWU, in whatever action their members decide to take in response to this crusade by the marauding millionaires and their Courts, in what Dave Ward has described as "a call to arms". 
This is as-near-as-damn-it to a ban on the right to strike, even the right to vote... without "improper interference" by the Courts, in "a form of subversion" of what masquerades as democracy under the rule of the capitalist rich. 

A Mandate for Defiance 

The strength of feeling in the sorting and delivery offices had already triggered unofficial walkouts at the rate of one a week, and then fuelled the phenomenal vote to take the first national strike action in a decade. 
Whatever the CWU decides to do in response to this brazen trampling on workers' rights by the Courts, media and Boris Johnson's outgoing Tory regime, this mood for resistance should not be allowed to dissipate. 

As we've written previously, the scurrilous attacks on the posties for daring to vote to strike at the busiest time of year, and during a snap General Election, should only serve to highlight just how critical these workers are to the functioning of several aspects of society.  
And that pivotal role should be harnessed as leverage in defiance of this High Court bosses' subversion, to stop the industrial vandals from obliterating not only the postal service,  but fundamental rights won through hard battles by past generations of trade unionists and socialists. 

Stand by the Posties

Likewise, just as the Courts, mainstream media and Tories have combined forces, so too the workers' movement needs to rally behind the posties in this hour of greatest need for solidarity. 
The Scottish Socialist Party is on standby to help enlist support in our unions and communities for that call for solidarity from the posties and CWU. 

HIGH COURT OF INJUSTICE: stand by your posties!

In a class-ridden fashion that was all too predictable, a High Court judge has granted Royal Mail bosses an interim injunction against the Communication Workers' Union strike action going ahead next week (19-21 October).

The mass democracy of a 9:1 majority for strike action amongst 110,000 CWU members has been trampled underfoot by an unelected judge on behalf of the unelected Royal Mail Group bosses.

After the resounding Yes vote was won - despite all the threats and obstruction thrown up by Royal Mail bosses - they tried to get a legal crushing of the subsequent action by absurdly claiming the union had not taken sufficient steps to inform its members of the planned strikes. Only those posties on a trip to Mars, with all communication channels to ground control cut off, could have been unaware of the planned action! 

These scared, desperate, but brutal bosses had to drop that crude nonsense, but then pursued the line of seeking an interim injunction on grounds of financial damage to the company. 

Court of Class Injustice

In stark confirmation of the role of the judicial arm of the state in the struggle between workers and big business employers, the judge had to decide who would suffer the greater financial damage, depending on whether he allowed the democratically decided industrial action to go ahead, or not. So his decision was to financially protect the Royal Mail bosses, at the expense of stalling the fightback by posties. At the expense of democracy. He instructed the CWU to suspend all industrial action "until external mediation had been concluded". 

The Issues Remain

But in reality this judicial setback only defers rather than defeats the struggle by Royal Mail workers. 

The issues remain. 

Nothing has been solved in the struggle to defend workers' pensions from a cut of up to 30%. 

Nothing has been conceded on the CWU's demands for a decent wage on retirement; or for a 35-hour working week without loss of pay, inclusive of breaks, to protect jobs, reduce drudgery and harness the advantages of new technology; or for defence of the right of union reps to properly function; or to withdraw plans for a two-tier workforce, with lower pay for new starters. 

The 9:1 Ballot Remains 

The ballot result remains.
As CWU General secretary Dave Ward declared outside the High Court of (In-)Justice:

"We walked into the Court with a 90% Yes vote, and we walked out still with a 90% Yes vote. This ballot is still live and kicking." 

The ruling merely delays the likelihood of strike action by 7 weeks, because the judge issued that as a deadline for the warring sides to reach an agreement through 'external mediation'.

This is an entirely bogus proposal; a fig leaf for a naked, class-driven offensive against workers and their ability to defend both their own conditions and the public services they provide. 

Negotiations on these issues have been dragged out by Royal Mail for 18 months already - including external mediation! 

Workers and their union reached the end of their collective tether, and only then balloted for strike action to force the out-of-touch bosses to sit up and listen. 

Strike Before Christmas 

As the CWU's Dave Ward declared, unless mediation leads to an acceptable offer in defence of workers and the great public service they provide, Royal Mail bosses are still staring down the barrel of a gun. The company either protects workers' pensions, pay, jobs, union rights and the service to the public, or they'll still encounter strikes before the peak Christmas period. 

And that's a key detail: the union is absolutely right to declare they will not allow the Royal Mail Board to string out mediation beyond the timescale specified by the High Court. 

The danger is that the employers want to stretch out 'external mediation' until the enhanced impact of a strike in December is dead and gone. They must not succeed. Either they concede to the demands of a workforce they are blatantly out of touch with during the mediation,  or they should be forced into doing so by decisive strike action before Christmas. 

Stand by Your Posties 

The war to defend Royal Mail services and it's workers is far from over. The use of the High Courts to tramp workers' democratic decisions into the dirt will only harden the resolve of these 110,000 men and women - and the determination of fellow trade unionists and socialists to build solidarity with them.