CWU’s voice of defiance rings out around the country
Postal November 13 2019Tonight, the CWU stands absolutely united in their anger at Royal Mail bosses and the high Court following today’s “outrageous” decision to invalidate our overwhelming Yes vote and enormous turnout.
While our national leadership was speaking out in central London, our representatives from around the country spoke with one voice – a voice of steadfast defiance.
From the North East, divisional rep Steve Warren said: “This verdict today is the establishment sticking together to throw democracy in the bin.”
And he slammed the false claims made by senior management in the case they put to the court, describing their slurs against the CWU as “sour grapes from people who have lost the support of the workforce.
“The ‘Vote Yes’ campaign was excellent – so good that other unions have been asking us for advice on their own campaigns,” Steve added.
North Wales/North West divisional rep Ian Taylor also slated the company’s manufactured claims, insisting that the union’s ‘Vote Yes’ campaign had been “brilliant.”
Members would, he predicted, be “extremely angry” at the verdict of the Court, commenting: “from what I’ve heard so far, these sound like highly spurious reasons.
“I didn’t hear of one single complaint from my division – so that’s not one single complaint from about 20,000 members.”
Down in London, Martin Walsh dubbed the judgement “a political decision.
“Members will be very angry that management have taken their own workforce to court,” pointed out the divisional rep for the capital, and he continued that, despite today’s ruling, “the issues here remain the same and we will not accept what the business is trying to do to our members.”
South Central Division rep Terry Jackson said that the court’s decision was “a nonsense decision.
“if people declare how they’ve voted in a general election, or in a referendum, that doesn’t invalidate those polls does it?” he pointed out and added that, if the union does ballot members again, “the result will be the same.”
“Here in the Midlands, our members will be furious at the decision of the court today,” was the reaction of divisional rep Simon Edmunds.
“I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous ruling before – has the right to strike been made illegal in this country?” he asks.
“Across Scotland and Northern Ireland, our members will be raging,” says divisional rep Tam Dewar. “it’s an anti-democratic verdict and the High Court has sided with Royal Mail. We will stay united behind our leadership that has never let us down.”
And from down in the Anglia Division, Steve Butts describes this afternoon’s pronouncement as “a dark day for working class people in this country.
“But if we have to reballot then I’m confident our members will support us again,” he added.
Pete Sinnott, from South East Division, says that his members will “no doubt be very disappointed – but we’ll get over that disappointment and get on with the good fight.
And regarding the allegations made against our union’s campaign, Pete said: “I haven’t heard one complaint from any of our approximately 11,000 members. It seems like the court is saying we can’t even campaign.”
South Wales/South West divisional rep Andy Nash was in Bristol Mail Centre when the judge’s verdict was announced and he reports that “the unit reps and the area rep were incensed” when they heard it.
“Among our members, even some of our members who were not that enthusiastic were annoyed by what the court decided,” he added, predicting that “if we have to reballot, I reckon we’d get a bigger turnout and a bigger ‘Yes’ vote.”