Royal Mail's offer - a one-off bonus or a 2.5% pay “rise” that is only half the rate of rising inflation (4.8%) in return for £350 million in cuts - is a challenge that we dare not ignore. Their plan is for a further £1.2 billion in cuts over the next five years, to flood the workforce with part-time workers and destroy a minimum of 40,000 fulltime jobs and our working conditions with them.

The bigger the vote, the greater the momentum for strike action. And let's be clear strike action is the only way to make Royal Mail abandon its plans.

Acceptance of Royal Mail's offer would represent a heavy defeat for the union and open the floodgates for management to go on the offensive in every single office. Endless rounds of cuts, changes and workload hikes would be force through by bullying and victimization. Such intimidation is already on the rise, for instance in Leeds where managers have sacked the branch secretary. These changes would undermine the very basis of the union in the workplace. The CWU was right to state, it is make or break time.

Demand leaders stay the course

But unfortunately the leadership is sending out mixed messages. Dave Ward's letters to members in the last two weeks have stated that the union leaders are ready to drop the ballot at any time in return for a “period of calm” and negotiations. Why do that? Everyone knows that management will only negotiate at all if the union brings the maximum pressure to bear on it. Nothing focuses managements' mind more than a deadline for a strike.

We should demand that the Postal Executive does not turn the process on and off like it did last summer during last year's pay battle, where it undemocratically broke conference's decisions on the schedule for the dispute balloting dates, etc. By stalling and putting off progress towards a strike, the CWU leaders lost momentum then. We must show Royal Mail that we will not allow to them to stall and fritter away the momentum we have built up in the last six weeks.

“We want an agreement”

In the Letter to Members on 22 May, Dave Ward says, “We want an agreement not a strike.” What sort of agreement is he talking about and is it one that would meet our vital needs?

The CWU leadership's bottom line is that they will not accept a pay cut in real terms (i.e. below inflation) nor Royal Mail's imposed strings: nonpayment for extra door to doors (D2D), 6 AM starting times and a national summer savings scheme where workers cover the walks of those on holiday. If Royal Mail offered something near this, the Postal Executive might well suspend the strike like they did last year, when they ended up accepting a below inflation pay deal.

Dave Ward has even stated the Executive would drop the dispute completely and offer Royal Mail “a period of calm with no industrial action - in return we want Royal Mail to set aside their Business Plan and back off from the cost cutting frenzy in every office.” But this would just be going back to the Efficiency Agreement agreed last year. Not only is this agreement already forcing us to accept cuts (see A big deal with Royal Mail is pie in the sky); it is what has led to the current confrontation. The scale of cuts demanded by Royal Mail, due to very real competition, are too great for postal workers to accept.

The only deal that union leaders could make would be a sell-out that conceded key points to the company at our expense.

Rank and file control

Sixteen people alone on the Postal Executive might feel too disconnected from the shopfloor to put forward demands they aren’t sure the membership would support. In an isolated negotiating room, surrounded by hostile government and media propaganda, there is pressure to reach a deal at any cost.

That is part of the reason that our negotiated deals always achieve the minimum possible. It is why we need strike committees, elected and accountable to regular workplace meetings, to lead the strike.

Such committees can organise every work unit, be it a delivery office of ten or a mail centre of hundreds, and counteract the daily tricks of local management as they try to undermine the strike. They can bring in new militants energised by struggle. Delegates from the shopfloor can deliberate the way forward with knowledge of the real mood of the members and state of affairs on the ground, coordinate action in the offices and mail centres, and work out a strategy to win.

In the final analysis, those who face the cuts should call the shots and decide on any negotiations and deals. Elected strike committees at a local, regional and national level are the best way to ensure that the strike goes ahead and that postal workers control negotiations. We don't want to face another yes-or-no vote on a deal the Executive says is the best on offer.

The Executive will doubtless say 'we are the elected leadership, it's our responsibility to lead action and negotiations.' It’s true that officials are elected but this is generally on a poor turn out and with few concrete proposals in the candidate's election addresses, and nothing on the current dispute.

Control of the dispute by delegates of the rank and file would mean we could react quickly to changes - new moves by management, rising militancy of the members once in action. The members could modify and escalate the strike's demands. For instance in the context of other public sector strikes, activists could win postal workers link their struggle to ours and demand an end to privatization even though it is illegal to hold strike in solidarity or for political demands. Strike committees give activists a direct connection to the rank and file and the ability to win support for such radical demands, giving those demands the backing of 140,000 postal workers.

Or to take another example, the CWU leadership has ruled out an all-out indefinite strike, and it is true many workers do not support that option at the moment. Yet Workers power believes that all-out indefinite is the quickest way to win. Within a week it would cost business billions and swamp any scabbing operations. It would create a crisis that would force the hand of Royal Mail and the government. In the media every day, such a strike would win mass support from other public sector workers and give them a strong argument for joining us, making us stronger yet. Many workers who do not back such a demand today could be won to it through a rank-and-file controlled strike.

We are at a Crossroads

Royal Mail has stated that postal workers are paid 25% too much and 40% under worked. This is not just an insult, it is a statement of intent to cut wages and increase workload. It shows clearly where they want to take us.

The union is at a crossroads. One road points in the direction of efficiency agreements, which Royal Mail temporarily agrees to close down disputes, plus lobbying Labour MPs over Postcomm's plans. It means further cuts that run down our jobs, conditions and morale, and that undermine the strength of the union. The end point of this process is a busted union and a restructured Royal Mail on a conveyor belt to privatisation.

The other road points towards struggle and rank and file transformation of the union, with the CWU taking a lead in building a class-wide revolt to Labour's attacks on the public sector, our social services, education, health. It points to a nationalised industry under workers and service users control not one run by millionaire managers in the service of the stock market.

This bulletin lays out a strategy for taking that other road. Either we win a complete victory over Royal Mail or suffer a serious defeat that opens the way to attacks in every workplace. There is no third way in the next few years, regardless of the outcome of this particular struggle.

WP Postal Workers Bulletin 12 contents:
• Why we need to strike
• A big deal with Royal Mail is pie in the sky
• Unite the public sector strikes!
• Break from Labour: For a New Workers Party!
• Solidarity with the G8 Protests
• An Action Programme for the Post
• Build a Rank and File Movement
• The CWU Left