CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING OUR NATIONAL DISPUTES
No: 415/22
19th October 2022
TO: ALL POSTAL BRANCHES
Dear Colleague
CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING OUR NATIONAL DISPUTES
Just as we were holding a live zoom session with our representatives, Simon Thompson CEO sent a letter to the General Secretary at exactly the same time as he published it on his Workplace channel. This was in response to a letter I sent him yesterday.
Please see attached my letter to Simon Thompson so that you have the full picture relating to this exchange of correspondence.
The CWU negotiating team met Royal Mail on Monday and were encouraged when the company indicated that they might be up for a different approach. The purpose of my letter to Simon Thompson, who absented from the meeting, was to establish whether he supported the position of his team.
We met with the Chief Conciliator from ACAS yesterday and her deputy and set out our position in our disputes. We told them that we were prepared to engage in serious negotiations with Royal Mail, providing the ground rules were established and agreed.
This would need to include no expectation for the CWU to stand down any strike action.
Any ACAS discussion will continue exactly in line with the letter that we wrote to Royal Mail on the 7th October, previously circulated to Branches and Reps in LTB 400/22.
Regrettably, Simon Thompson’s behavior has shown once again that he is seeking to sabotage any prospect of serious talks and is not genuine about reaching an agreement with the union.
Finally, the union will not be discussing functional talks on Royal Mail’s Agenda for Change, until we have dealt with the fundamental issues about the company’s Business Plan and the unacceptable job losses, including the threat of compulsory redundancies, announced last Friday.
We believe that the CEO absenting himself from any future negotiations is a sign that his position as head of the company is now untenable.
Any enquiries should be sent to the GS/(A) DGS (P) Departments jdunn@cwu.org/hford@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward – General Secretary
Andy Furey – Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)