Year: 2013

Consultative Ballot

RE: Consultative Ballot – PE Local Arrangements

Ballot papers and relevant documents will be sent to reps or taken to DO’s by the Area Rep

Ballot papers will be given to Members in person by Local Reps (Area Reps where there is no Local Rep)

Members will sign to acknowledge receipt of their Ballot paper

Members on Long Term Sick/Annual Leave will have Ballot paper sent to their home address with a pre-paid return envelope.

Ballot papers will be enclosed in the envelope provided and returned or given to the Rep to send

Ballot papers will be sent to the Independent scrutineer – Popularis Limited.

There are 4 questions on the Ballot paper – we hope for you to vote YES to all

Do you oppose the privatisation of Royal Mail?
Do you support the boycott of competitors’ mail?
Do you support the CWU pay claim?
Do you support the policy of non cooperation with Royal Mail?

BALLOT OPENS: 22nd May 2013
BALLOT CLOSES: 18th June 2013
RESULTS ANNOUNCED: 19th June 2013
(results for each question will be announced separately)

If you have any enquires please do not hesitate to contact me.

Respectfully yours,

Carl Harper
Letter Section Secretary
Eastern 5 Branch
Peterborough Mail Centre
PE4 5PE

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LTB 299/13 – Next Steps in Delivery Agreement

No. 299/13 Ref: 230.03 Date: 8th May 2013

To: All Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague,

Nationally Agreed Joint Statement on “Next Steps” in Delivery

The Postal Executive at its meeting on 8th May agreed a document on the above issue (copy attached). Branches will be aware that within the Business Transformation agreement there is a commitment from both Royal Mail and the CWU to jointly agree and deploy the Next Steps initiative in delivery units.

This is a programme of support tailored to Delivery Offices building on the experiences and lessons learned from the deployment of Clear Choice in Mail Centres. The Next Steps initiatives key objective is headcount reductions resulting from operational transformation revisions thus leaving neither an unresolved surplus nor an excess of hours above the agreed duty structure.

Next Steps supplements and is completely in line with the contents and procedures outlined in the Managing the Surplus Framework Agreement. The fundamental principle of Next Steps is engagement with individuals in order to avoid surplus staff or hours within an office following an agreed revision.  The type of approach deployed will depend upon the size of the task and if the office has already deployed or is yet to deploy their transformation revision.

Key Points of the Joint Statement

· Discussion, consultation and negotiation on all revisions will continue in line with the agreed 6 phase revision process, all national agreements, Joint Statements and agreed national guidelines and the IR Framework.
· All activity will be in line with the Managing the Surplus Framework agreement.
· Attention will be given to any family friendly arrangements in place in line with normal process and those covered by the 2010 equality act. Issues relating to potential employee surpluses, excess travel costs, preference exercises and pay protection will be managed in line with the terms set out in the MTSF agreement.
· Any duty selection criteria or resourcing issues will be dealt with in line with MTSF and the Way Forward Agreement. For the purpose of clarity it should be noted that MTSF takes precedence over the Way Forward agreement in respect of duty selection where there are surplus staff and where pay protection is required.
· All buy down and redundancy is voluntary.
· Employees must buy down to an agreed duty at the office template agreed in the revision by the Delivery Office Manager and the local CWU Rep (TM1).

Any queries to Bob Gibson.

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CWU Annual Conference 2013 Report:
Letter Section Report

All these Motions in their entirety are available on request from the Branch.

GENERAL CONFERENCE BRANCH/REGIONAL MOTIONS:
Motion 29 – Eastern Regional Committee – Timed Out (NEC Support)

Motion 45 – Eastern No 5 – Not Carried (after debate)
Move: Amanda Hill Second: Steve Clarke

Motion 60 – Eastern No 5 – Timed Out (NEC Support)

Motion 73 – Eastern Regional Committee – Timed Out (NEC Support)

Motion 93 – Eastern Regional Committee – Carried (after debate)
Move: Paul Moffat Second: Carl Harper

Motion 111 – Eastern Regional Committee – Not Carried (after debate)
Move: Eastern No 4 Second: Eastern Regional Committee

Key: Carried Motions = © Accepted Motions = @

GENERAL CONFERENCE (Sunday)
36 © – POLICY – Yearly financial donation to the Durham Miners Gala
37 © – POLICY – Promote the importance of BAME
85 @ – EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES – NEC to work with the WAC regarding the menopause
86 @ – EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES – Information package to be created regarding Deaf Awareness
87 @ – EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES – Information package to be created regarding Visual Impairments
88 © – HEALTH & SAFETY – NEC to seek review and clarification regarding H&S compliance with the employer
89 @ – HEALTH & SAFETY – NEC to liaise with Officers regarding SR refresher training
90 © – HEALTH & SAFETY – Provision of sun cream for those exposed
91 © – HEALTH & Safety – RTA’s to be reported to HSE in line with RIDDOR
53 © – FINANCE – Ensure CWU recognising business pay a living wage
54 © – FINANCE – Endorse the decision of the NEC on Regional Secretary pay
56 @ – FINANCE – Announcement of spend in regard to UNI GLOBAL affiliation
57 @ – FINANCE – Review into pay for accrued leave
59 @ – FINANCE – Compensation for reps who recruit or represent outside of facilities time
120 © – RULES – A change in the submitting of motions
126 © – RULES – A change in the submitting of motions

GENERAL CONFERENCE (Monday)
11 © – POLICY – Campaign to suspend Work Capability Assessment process
12 © – POLICY – Work to be carried out with the LGBT organisations
13 © – POLICY – Campaign against cuts to Legal Aid
1 © – POLICY – Donations to food banks
2 © – POLICY – Lobby and protest against changes to online claim systems
4 © – POLICY – CWU to prepare and emergency plan to address government cuts to benefits and allowances
63 © – POLICY – Honorary membership – including Noel McClean
E2 © – PLOICY –
78 © – MEMBERSHIP/LEGAL SERVICES/COMMS – Legal claims advice and support review
80 @ – MEMBERSHIP/LEGAL SERVICES/COMMS – Angard members to qualify under PABS for AOD’s
25 © – POLICY – Scottish Independence
26 © – POLICY – Remain within the EU
33 @ – POLICY – Intended actions in regard to political ‘movement’ reported to Branches in regard to capitalism
93 © – POLITICAL – Branch Motion
94 © – POLITICAL – Lobby against means testing
102 © – POLITICAL – Policy for the repeal of anti-union laws
16 © – POLICY – Continue the Closing The Loopholes campaign
17 © – POLICY – Lobby against union busters and derecognising companies
19 © – POLICY – Notify members of changes to employment law
20 © POLICY – Continue to campaign against privatisation
21 © POLICY – Continue to support TUC regarding an 1 day general strike

POSTAL CONFERENCE (Tuesday)

All these Motions in their entirety are available on request from the Branch.

The Postal section of Conference predominantly addressed Emergency Motions E5 and E6, which were submitted by the Postal Executive and moved by Dave Ward and Bob Gibson.

Emergency Motion E5
This proposition outlined the terms of the consultative ballot proposed in LTB 240/13.

Emergency Motion E6
This proposition calls for an agreement with Royal Mail which deals with the terms outlined in Composite Amendment 1, which was unanimously Carried at Policy Forum.

There will be gate meetings to follow shortly regarding these motions. There will also be material distributed by the CWU to members and from Royal Mail in response, due to the severity of the issue.

Both Billy Hayes and Dave Ward stated the importance of these propositions and the important time we now face as a union. Billy Hayes said “These are the most important times for this union”. Dave Ward went on to say “If it is a fight that they (Royal Mail and the Government) then we need to show them that we are ready, willing and able”.

Branch Motions:
MOTION 26 – Accepted
MOTION 29 – Accepted
MOTION 42 – Not Carried after debate
Move: Simon Peach Second: Carl Harper

Motion 1 – instructed the Postal Executive to ensure future agreements protect a latest start time of 0700 in Delivery Offices.

Motion 3 – instructed the Postal Executive to maintain the six day delivery specification.

Motion 4 – This Motion makes Policy what I have asked of you already locally.

Motion 5 – instructed the Postal Executive to re-negotiate the parameters for attendance calls for GeoRoute and IWT.

Motion 9 – instructed the Postal Executive to address the issue of managers performing OPG work. The executive is to compile a report examining the scale of the problem, make relevant recommendations, raise this with the employer and seek agreement/policy and report this back to Branches.

Motion 19 – instructed the Postal Executive to review the opening times of Callers Offices and look to adjust them accordingly to meet customer needs.

Motion 31 – instructed the Postal Executive to review the World Class Mail National Agreement and its contents. A robust CWU structure, adhering and regarding this agreement, is to be set up immediately.

If you wish to know more about any of the Motions from General and/or Postal Conference, please do not hesitate to ask.
Respectfully yours,

Carl Harper
Letter Section Secretary

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Save Our Royal Mail

SAVE OUR ROYAL MAIL – LAUNCH OF COALITION

As previously announced, the union is building a coalition to campaign to Save Our Royal Mail. Our partners in managing the coalition, PSA Communications, have started bringing together other supportive organisations. Currently, this includes Countryside Alliance, Royal National Institute of the Blind and the National Pensioners Convention and PSA are in discussion with other influential organisations.

Yesterday also saw the launch of the Facebook group, ‘save our royal mail’, the twitter account, @saveourRM and hashtag #saveourroyalmail . Branches should maximise social media activity.

The Coalition has been formed around 6 principles. These are aimed at encouraging organisations to join the coalition whilst remaining in line with CWU’s key aims. These principles are:

• Prices will shoot up
• Small businesses will suffer
• The countryside will be left isolated
• Free postal services to the blind under threat?
• HM Forces postal lifeline scrapped
• Royal Mail’s heritage lost
On Monday 8th April 2013, the coalition formally launched. The launch commenced with an announcement of the intentions of the coalition and a key story on the threat to rising prices for consumers from privatisation. You may have seen the article on the front page of Monday’s Daily Telegraph regarding the threat of the £1 stamp. In addition the launch had significant coverage nationally and locally. These included Mail Online, AOL Money, the Morning Star and the Daily Express on the first morning and many other publications following the story up later in the day. Many regional news outlets carried interviews with the coalition.

In addition, the coalition launched its website saveourroyalmail.org
This is the website we need to drive traffic to. It includes collecting contact details so that we can build a database of supporters as well as providing a vehicle for people to write to individual MP’s. All of our national SORM campaign material will carry links to this site as does, cwu.org

Finally, the coalition launched the first e-petition. This is linked to rising prices and is in the name of the campaign. This will be followed by 5 more petitions and we are looking at nominating 5 individuals to lead those. This petition is directly linked from saveourroyalmail.org and can also be found at the online petition site, change.org by browsing the search facility on that site.

These campaign initiatives will remain live and will be promoted through our own communications.

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