Liberalisation has squeezed Royal Mail

This is a letter in support of the CWU strikers, printed by the Swindon Advertiser.

Although the strike by CWU members in Royal Mail is formally a pay dispute, it is the result of the crazy liberalisation of the postal service, supported enthusiastically by the Blair/Brown government.

Like the market introduced in the NHS, it is a rigged one. Private competitors do not have to invest in the massive infrastructure necessary to deliver mail.

Royal Mail has to deliver mail for its competitors.

 

Liberalisation can only lead to the destruction of the post as a public service. It threatens the Universal Service Obligation through which a universal price is maintained, whatever the distance the post has to travel.

In order to shape up for competition Royal Mail is seeking to cut tens of thousands of jobs and worsen the service it provides, in order to compete in this rigged market.

The CWU industrial action is therefore against the destruction of jobs and the service it provides. Both trades unionists and service users should support the struggle of the CWU against this market madness.

M Wicks.

Secretary, Swindon TUC

Foundation Status - bad for the health of the NHS

Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust is holding what they describe as a consultation (from July 9^th until September 29^th) on the proposal to become a Foundation Trust. Sadly this is not a genuine consultation, one in which the pros and cons of a proposal are seriously discussed. The Trust has stated that it is not a consultation over whether or not Foundation status is a good idea. Swindon TUC is therefore appealing for a genuine discussion on what Foundation status involves, what its consequences are.

We are opposed to the government’s policy which seeks to introduce a competitive health market, in which free standing Hospital Trusts compete with each other for patients. The Trust is trying to sell their proposal as a means of gaining ‘local control’. In fact it will give local management a certain freedom from NHS control. But, the main consequences of such a move will be the commercialisation of the service. Their first ‘strategic goal’ will be to gain patients from other Trusts.

Foundation Trusts are said to be “independent, not-for-profit public benefit corporations”. In fact when they can keep their surpluses, they are going to organise their ‘business’ in such a way as to maximise their surpluses. One of the advantages of Foundation status for the management is that they can withdraw from nationally negotiated wages and conditions of service for staff. The Trust has refused to give any commitment that it will not do so. If they do, rest assured that it will not be to improve the wages or to cut the workload for staff.

Whilst the government has said it will maintain treatment free at the point of use, its ‘market’ is undermining the foundations of the NHS as a national service in which different parts of the system co-operated with each other. In its place are competing Trusts fighting each other for the available work.

We have seen the introduction of private companies into what is in many respects a rigged market. Companies have been guaranteed money even when they have not fulfilled their contracts. These companies have thus been paid for operations they have not done, whilst financial pressures have been raised on NHS Trusts. This is just a first brief comment on the ‘consultation’ over Foundation status. We will be making a submission opposing Foundation status and will be producing a briefing which explains in detail the government’s policy, driven by their ideological commitment to ‘market’ methods.

GMB Calls on Labour Government to Honour Election Pledge to Hold referendum to ratify EU Reform Treat on the Constitution

GMB European Committee endorse ETUC position “No Charter of Fundamental Rights – no EU Treaty” 

There was a meeting today of the GMB European Committee which discussed the agreement reached by the EU Council of Ministers over the weekend 22/23 June 2007 in Brussels on a new draft of the EU Reform Treaty on the Constitution.  Following the meeting Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said,  

“It is now clear that the legal work to give effect to the agreement reached at the end of June 2007 on the EU Reform Treaty on the Constitution will begin right away with the target of getting the new draft agreed by the Council of Ministers in December 2007. The plan is for each nation state to ratify the agreement during 2008 and for the new Reform Treaty on the Constitution to come into effect on 1^st January 2009. There will be a referendum in Ireland. Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, has conceded that 90% of the content of the previous Constitution is included in the new Reform Treaty on the Constitution.

The Labour Party General Election manifesto pledged that the UK electorate would be given the final say, in a referendum, on the ratification of the Constitution. The Labour Party should honour its pledge and hold a referendum in 2008 on the ratification of this new Reform Treaty on the Constitution. The pledge was right at the time of the election and it is right now.

Europe can only be developed with the whole hearted support of its citizens. GMB is a strong and a firm advocate of the benefits that a Social Europe brings to the people of the UK, while guarding against proposals that would undermine the hard won rights of UK workers. A Reform Treaty on the Constitution without the Charter of Fundamental Rights is for a business Europe and GMB did not sign up for this. This position was reaffirmed today by the GMB European Committee.”