SPECIAL REPORT

CWU National Briefing QEII Building Westminster London February 7th 2018

CWU Divisional, Area and Branch Representatives came from all over the country to the National Briefing in central London to hear a detailed presentation of the negotiators’ deal reached between the union and the company for the National Four Pillars & Pay Agreement.

Opening the event, general secretary Dave Ward said that the package was undoubtedly a good deal for our members and he warmly praised the efforts of deputy general secretary postal (DGSP) Terry Pullinger and his team of senior national officers, as well as the CWU’S army of reps and members who supported the campaign. The deal, and the concessions that have been forced out of Royal Mail, are entirely due to the support from members in the industrial action ballot, he added the union’s communications strategy had also been extremely effective.

Dave went on to outline some of the union’s future in both the wider industrial and political arenas, with emphasis on the CWU being the union making the argument for the New Deal for Workers campaign. And the need to bud for the forthcoming national TUC demonstration scheduled for May. Dave believes if a Labour government is elected then they will re-nationalise Royal Mail and with the current Labour party policies showing they are standing up for workers again. The CWU are the strongest union in this country and are in the position to deliver good industrial agreements and shape the treatment of workers in this country.

Terry Pullinger spoke next, and he began by taking the audience back almost two years, reminding the assembled activists of the national briefing in this very building in March 2016, when our Four Pillars campaign was launched.

We set out our vision and we set our agenda, he recalled and drew comparisons between the company’s initial position at that time and the extremely significant progress made on all four of the Pillars of Security that represented the CWU’s negotiating programme.

We turned Royal Mail around and everyone should be very proud of what has been achieved. Back then, we were at a crossroads and Royal Mail were intent on taking this industry down a different road. We are now taking it down a positive road.

He referenced the huge support that members gave to the union in the industrial action ballot last autumn. We shocked Royal Mail, other trade unions, the media, politicians and the public as well. This achievement was even more impressive in the context of the new anti-union laws.

The pay and shorter working week elements of the deal were some way ahead of what is being achieved elsewhere in other sectors, he continued and advised the audience that, if any of your members say that this part of the deal was not enough, then tell them to go and ask the nurse’s what they think, we must accept change. Jobs will change to some degree this is unavoidable we have to recognise this, and control change not refuse to accept it’s not realistic. We will still review our legal protections in 2019 this will be an independent review like the Sawyer report and any changes will not happen until 2020 and will include an agreement to extend the agreement until 2022. This extension will cost Royal Mail half a billion pounds, so we must be realistic about some change. We need to go out there and tell our members how much has been achieved, because it’s massive. In the next few weeks, Terry and his senior team of national officers will be holding a series of unit rep briefings at locations in every part of the UK. Where shift and unit reps will receive the same message. After our regional meeting, which is scheduled for the 21st February, there will be a series of gate meetings and WTLL sessions organised by the branch to relay the message to the membership.

Pensions / Terry Pullinger began the section on pensions by saying Our policy on pensions is not driven just on behalf of our members in the CWU it’s a moral argument on behalf of all workers in this country. I absolutely believe we will push through the secondary legislation required to allow this pension and believe Royal Mail will do the same. Therefore, they have been invited to this meeting to address you and to give you assurances they are positively serious about pushing it through and are already well into the process. There are Universities and other companies waiting for this to go through because they want to convert their pension schemes to the same scheme because it is widely recognised that the current defined contribution pension schemes that most companies have will not support people in retirement and this could lead to big financial problems for this country in the future.

We then heard from Mick Jeavons Royal Mail chief of staff who gave a brief history of our pension schemes and assured us they are committed to make this scheme happen and are talking to all the right people to make this happen.

Jenny hall lead of Royal Mail lobbying group we have started to lobby all the relevant bodies and have made good progress so far and all the responses we have had so far are positive. The legislation to allow the proposal already exists it’s our goal to push the secondary legislation back up the agenda for this government. The Collective Defined contribution pension scheme (CDC) has been running in the Netherlands for over 50 years and has been very successful.

We then watched a pensions video from Hillary salt from First Actuarial she gave a detailed explanation of the proposed (CDC) scheme and outlined what members expectations should be regarding annual and lump sum payments when members retire as well as an explanation of the retirement age of the new scheme and outlined the benefits of taking the option to pay the additional 1% matched by 1% by the business into the scheme.

There was a lengthy Q&A session asking for the details of the extra contributions options to still allow the pension to be taken at 65. Also, confirmation the option would still exist in the new CDC to adjust the amount of lump sum up or down in relation to your annual pension. The CDC will be open to all Royal Mail grades members. HQ are going to send out a booklet to all members explaining the finer details of the new scheme.

So, the most common question is what happens if the legislation is not agreed

Both Ray Ellis and Terry Pullinger said they don’t expect this to happen for many reasons. The one main reason is the transitional pension period for all current DB scheme members plus another 20000 current DC members is still on their balance sheet. They want this legislation to pass just as much, if not more, than us as the new scheme is a separate pension with a shared risk. However, after 12 months there will be a review of the situation to determine whether the legislation is going to pass. If not, then the option might be there to simply tweak the current legislation to allow the CDC scheme and a second option would mean entering fresh negotiations with Royal Mail to look at an acceptable outcome.

In a Q&A session at the end of the briefing ray Ellis confirmed there will be NO changes to the current MTSF agreement and the review of attendance will be looking at opportunities within our current agreement on attendance. So, the core agreement will not change. Davie Robinson said Royal Mails original proposals on pipeline and last letter would completely kill off letter traffic in this industry and mean the end of the USO we have turned them around on all their ideas. This is not a no change agreement it’s a managed change agreement.

Eastern No5 Branch

National Briefing Delegation

9th February 2018

Election of CWU Delegates to the TUC Equality Conferences – 2018

Further to LTB 032/18 dated 18th January 2018, find detailed below the results of the ballots.

TUC BLACK WORKERS CONFERENCE 

3 Lay Members

Adam Alarakhia

Leicestershire30,991Linford Gibbons

Nottingham District Amal67,348*ElectedBola Omoyeni

South Midlands Postal51,738Sajid Shaikh

Birmingham District Amal80,747*ElectedIan Taylor

Greater Manchester81,800*Elected

TUC DISABLED WORKERS CONFERENCE 

Postal

3 Lay Members

Adam Alarakhia

Leicestershire45,229Mark Anthony Bastiani

London South West Postal61,716*ElectedTony Pedel

York & District Amal47,840 Tony Sneddon

Scotland No 573,882*ElectedLee Starr Elliott

Bristol & District Amal72,839*Elected

TUC LGBT CONFERENCE 

Telecoms & Financial Services

3 Lay Members (1 Woman)

John Monk

London & West23,649*ElectedJacky Morrey

Mid Wales The Marches & North Staffs,29,726*ElectedJean Sharrocks

North East,25,171*ElectedDuncan Strivens

South London Surrey & North Hampshire13,567

The branch analysis for the above elections are attached to this LTB.

Any enquiries regarding this Letter to Branches should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department on telephone number 020 8971 7237, or email address sdgs@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

18LTB075

Postal Returns

TFS Returns

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Here is a copy of the video from Hilary Salt from today’s National Briefing. It gives a details update on pensions. Please share as widely as possible

#PowerOfTheUnion

Election of:

• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives – 2018

• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives (Substitute) – 2018

• Royal Mail Divisional Chair – 2018

Further to LTB 035/18 dated 19th January 2018, at the close of nominations at 14:00 on 6th February 2018, the following were received:

ROYAL MAIL DIVISIONAL REPRESENTATIVES 

ANGLIA

Steve Butts

Eastern No 4*ElectedBarry Jennings

Northern Home Counties Postal*Elected 

LONDON

Mark Palfrey

South East London Postal & Counter*ElectedMartin Walsh

London South West*Elected

MIDLAND

Simon Edmunds

Nottingham & District Amal*ElectedPaul Kennedy

Birmingham District Amal*Elected 

NORTH EAST

Gary Hodkinson

South Yorks & District Amal*ElectedBob McGuire

Newcastle Amal*Elected

NORTH WALES/NORTH WEST

Mark Bolton

North Lancs & Cumbria*ElectedIan Taylor

Greater Manchester*Elected 

SCOTLAND/NORTHERN IRELAND

Kenny Logan

Scotland No 2*ElectedTam Dewar

Glasgow District Amal*Elected 

SOUTH CENTRAL

Dermot Fuller

South West No 7*ElectedTerry Jackson

South East No 5*Elected 

SOUTH EAST

Peter Sinnott

Southdowns Weald & Rother(Ballot Required)Steve Wisely

South East Thames Amal Phil Wright

Kent Invicta  

SOUTH WEST/SOUTH WALES

Les Evans

South West Wales Amal*ElectedAndy Nash

Bristol & District Amal*Elected 

ROYAL MAIL DIVISIONAL REPRESENTATIVES (SUBSTITUTES)

 

ANGLIA

Kevin Martin

Essex Amal*Elected

LONDON

John Simkins

London Phoenix Branch*Elected 

MIDLAND

Steve Blower

Nottingham District Amal*Elected 

NORTH EAST

Brett Giroux

Newcastle Amal(Ballot Required)Steve Warren

South Yorkshire & District  

NORTH WALES/NORTH WEST

Paul Dugdale

North West Central Amal(Ballot Required)Paul Fenney

North West No 1

SCOTLAND/NORTHERN IRELAND

Robert Storrie

Scotland No 5*Elected 

 

SOUTH CENTRAL

Paul Garraway

South Central Postal*Elected 

SOUTH EAST

David Bennett

South East No 5*Elected 

SOUTH WEST/SOUTH WALES

Stephen Coombes

Western Counties(Ballot Required)Ralph Ferrett

Plymouth & East Cornwall  

 

ROYAL MAIL DIVISIONAL CHAIR

 

ANGLIA

Trevor Williamson

Eastern No 3*Elected 

 

LONDON

Raymond Dunning

West London Postal*Elected

MIDLAND 

Linford Gibbons

Nottingham District Amal(Ballot Required)Christopher Sheldon

Derbyshire * Note: Branch Ballot (Not Individual Member Ballot)

NORTH EAST

Graham Clough

South Yorkshire & District Amal*Elected

NORTH WALES/NORTH WEST

Lenny Crook

North Lancs & Cumbria*Elected

SCOTLAND/NORTHERN IRELAND

Jim McKechnie

Glasgow & District Amal*Elected 

SOUTH CENTRAL

Stewart Hardie

Wessex South Central*Elected

SOUTH EAST

John Kavanagh

Kent Invicta(Ballot Required)Alasdair Kenneth MacLeod

Croydon & Sutton Amal * Note: Branch Ballot (Not Individual Member Ballot)

 

SOUTH WEST/SOUTH WALES

Doug Lillicrap

Plymouth & East Cornwall(Ballot Required)Colin Sayles

Gloucestershire Amal Paul Wotton

Western Counties * Note: Branch Ballot (Not Individual Member Ballot)

The timetable for the above elections are as follows:

Ballot Papers dispatched: 14 February 2018

Ballot Close: 28 February 2018 (first post)

Any enquiries regarding this Letter to Branches should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department on telephone number 020 8971 7237, or email address sdgs@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

18LTB070

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Unit Representative Briefings – Pay and Four Pillars Agreement

Further to LTB 59/18, listed below are the dates and venues for the upcoming Unit Representative Briefings. All Briefings will commence at 11:00 and conclude by 15:00.

DATE

DIVISION

VENUE

Tues 20th February

South East

Ashford International Hotel

Simone Weil Ave

Ashford

TN24 8UX

Weds 21st February

Anglia

Cambridge Motel

Dunsbridge Turnpike

Shepreth

Royston

SG8 6RA

Thurs 22nd February

South Central

TBC

Fri 23rd February

London

Central Hall

Storey’s Gate

Westminster

London

SW1H 9NH

Mon 26th February

North East

Queens Hotel

City Square

Leeds

LS1 1PJ

Tues 27th February

North Wales/ North West

Adelphi Hotel

Ranelagh St

Liverpool

L3 5UL

Weds 28th February

Scotland

Grand Central

99 Gordon St

Glasgow

G1 3SF

Thurs 1st March

Northern Ireland

Radisson Blu

The Gasworks

3 Cromac Pl

Belfast

BT7 2JB

Mon 5th March

Parcelforce Worldwide

Birmingham & District Branch

Depot and Hub Reps

47 Summer Lane

Hockley

Birmingham

B19 3TH

Tues 6th March

Midlands

Birmingham & District Branch

47 Summer Lane

Hockley

Birmingham

B19 3TH

Weds 7th March

South Wales/South West

TBC

Royal Mail has confirmed that release to attend these Briefings will be paid. It would therefore be appreciated if Branches/Representatives could engage in immediate dialogue with local Managers regarding release arrangements and thereby ensure that we have maximum attendance at each of the scheduled meetings.

Branches will be advised once venues have been confirmed for those Briefings currently without a venue.

Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Terry Pullinger

Deputy General Secretary (Postal)

18LTB69 – Unit Representative Briefings – Pay and Four Pillars Agreement

Greener Jobs Alliance – Free Course For Trade Union Reps on ‘Air Pollution – A Trade Union Issue’ Friday 9 February 2018 from 1.00pm – 4.30pm

Dear Colleagues,

Introduction

Air pollution in the UK is a public health emergency and has rightly in recent times become the centre of attention as the government’s own figures confirm that air pollution is responsible for 40,000 deaths in the UK each year and the World Health Organisation has called it a global health emergency. Workers are exposed to and create pollution to fulfil contractual obligations to employers. It is an occupational health issue that employers take little responsibility for. The ‘Greener Jobs Alliance’ and the ‘Hazards Campaign’ are offering this free half day courses for trade union representatives to look in detail at the issue and explores what can be done about it.

The Greener Jobs Alliance

The Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) has been formed as a partnership body inclusive of trade unions, student organisations, campaigning groups and a policy think tank. It campaigns around the issue of jobs and the skills needed to transition to a low-carbon economy. The founding members of the GJA are the University and College Union, Trades Union Congress, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, National Union of Students, People & Planet, and the Institute of Public Policy Research.

The Course

Attending this course will help you to:

• Examine why air pollution is both a workplace issue and a public health one

• Find out about air pollution busting Citizen Science techniques

• Create action plans to deal with workplace exposures

• Create action plans to meaningfully engage in air pollution with local councils

• Share experience, knowledge and ideas

The Venue

GMB Euston Office

22 Stephenson Way

Euston

London

NW1 2HD

Registration

Registration is required.

Please confirm your attendance by email to: janet@gmhazards.org.uk

For further information please contact Janet Newsham on Tel: 0161 6367558

Unions and the Environment

Unions have a strong voice protecting the environment in their workplaces and local communities, and there’s an ideal opportunity to check out some of the resources and support available. The CWU supports encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment and is working with the ‘Greener Jobs Alliance’ and ‘Hazards’.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

18LTB064 Greener Jobs Alliance – Free Course For Trade Union Reps on ‘Air Pollution – A Trade Union Issue’ Friday 9 February 2018 from 1.00pm – 4.30pm

Air Pollution course London

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NEW EDUCATION AND TRAINING WEBSITE

Dear colleagues,

The CWU has launched our new education and training website today. This new site can be viewed here www.education.cwu.org

We are pleased with the look and feel of the new site and we hope branches, representatives, ULRs and members can use it to continue and enhance the unions excellent online education and training presence.

In launching the site, we are aware there will be teething problems and we encourage any users to report issues to April O’Neill via email aoneill@cwu.org

Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be directed to Marcia Murray mmurray@cwu.org

Yours Sincerely,

Dave Ward – General Secretary

Trish Lavelle – Head of Education and Training

Chris Webb – Head of Communications, Engagement and Media

LTB 062.18

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