Post Office workers – VOTE YES, YES
Postal November 15 2022
As strike ballot enters its last few days, CWU leaders urge POL members to ‘deliver another vote for action’…
“If you haven’t voted yet, do it today – vote YES to strike action and vote YES to action short of a strike,” says acting DGSP Andy Furey, in a final push to maximise the turnout in the fresh ballot being held among Post Office members in the long-running pay dispute.
“We need to send the strong message to Post Office bosses – and the more of you who vote, and the more of you who vote YES, the louder your collective voice. They made £74 million in profit over the past two years – £35m for 2020/21 and £39m for 2021/22 – and it was your hard work that created those profits. Therefore, they can afford to pay you a fair pay rise. It’s only right and just that you get a fair share of that success.”
Explaining the cynical reason why hard-working staff in Crowns, Admin and Supply Chain did not get adequately rewarded for their efforts, Andy points out: “It wasn’t about affordability, it was because of the targets linked to managers’ bonuses. If Post Office didn’t hit these targets – and giving you a fair pay rise would have meant targets were missed – managers wouldn’t have received their healthy bonuses. So, you lost out to selfishness and greed.
“It’s unfair that managers got bonuses as a direct result of our members not getting a reasonable pay rise.”
Post Officers workers have already taken six days of strike action, but the ballot that authorised those strikes legally expired at the end of September and therefore a new ballot was required by law. And in this second vote, the union decided to add a further question covering industrial action short of a strike – a step which will give the union flexibility in tactics.
“As I speak today, there are just two more polling days left. All feedback from our reps indicates that the result is likely to be a clear majority for action – but let’s do everything we can to make this YES vote as high as possible – let’s make it a big double YES.
“If you haven’t yet voted, please do so today. If you have voted, please remind your colleagues to vote – and share the attached flyer with as many of your fellow workers as possible.”