CWU LIVE – TONIGHT AT 7PM

Dear Members,

Tonight at 7pm the weekly CWU Live show will cover some vital issues. 

    ⁃    The Royal Mail takeover bid 
    ⁃    Communications for our telecoms and financial services members 
    ⁃    The forthcoming general election 
    ⁃    A report from the TUC Disabled Workers Conference 

In the coming weeks we will cover more crucial subjects as we open up the union more than ever. 

You can watch tonight’s show by subscribing to the CWU YouTube channel or simply by clicking this link at 7pm tonight: https://youtu.be/I5nyShsN2Qo

The show will also be available via catch-up. 

Solidarity,

Dave Ward 
General Secretary 

Chris Webb
Head of Communications

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024 – DECISIONS AND CARD VOTES

Please find attached copies of the decisions taken during Annual Conference 2024 and the results of the Card Votes that were taken.

Any enquiries regarding this Letter to Branches should be addressed to Angela Niven, 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

24LTB183 – Annual Conference 2024 – Decisions and Card Votes

1. Special Restructuring Conference – Sunday 21.4.24 (003)

2. Rules Revision Conference – Monday 22.4.24

3. TFS Conference – Tuesday 23.4.24

4. TFS Conference – Wednesday 24.4.24

5. TFS Conference – Thursday 25.4.24

6. Postal Conference – Tuesday 23.4.24

7. Postal Conference – Wednesday 24.4.24

8. Postal Conference – Thursday 25.4.24 (3)

1. Restructuring Conference 2024 – Card Vote 1

Copy of 1. Postal Conference Motion 16 Card Vote

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IDS TAKEOVER UPDATE

Branches will be aware that it was reported yesterday that Daniel Kretinsky, via his investment groups, as expected has now formally made a bid for the ownership of Royal Mail. The board has accepted this offer and we now expect EP Group to seek agreement from the IDS shareholders.

It is understood that any takeover will be investigated by the government, under the National Security and Investment Act, as Royal Mail is part of the UK’s critical infrastructure. However, the recently announced general election, set to take place on the 4th of July, means there may be some delay to this investigation.

Daniel Kretinsky has given the company and the government assurances regarding some aspects of Royal Mail’s operation. The published assurances, as part of the contractual obligations, do not go far enough for the union and our members. We will be meeting with Vesa Equity next week to seek extensive assurances, including his plans for investment in the workforce, the operation and future growth for the company, as well as the full terms of our CWU Conference policy.

We would anticipate this being part of an ongoing process throughout the takeover and will keep members updated as frequently as possible. In addition to ongoing discussions with the Labour Party on this issue, we will be contacting the new government minister about any investigations as soon as a new government is formed.

Please see the attached statement from Royal Mail and Kretinsky on details of the takeover bid. Over the coming days, we will be scrutinising this document and taking the necessary steps to make our views heard. We will soon call a national briefing to update you on this issue. If you have any questions, please contact jdunn@cwu.org.

Kind regards,

Dave Ward                                                               

General Secretary            

Martin Walsh                                   

Deputy General Secretary (P)                                       

LTB 182/24 – IDS TAKEOVER UPDATE

Attachment – rule-27-announcement

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ELECTION OF NATIONAL DELEGATIONS – 2024

• TUC Congress

Further to LTB 179/24 Errata  dated 28^th May it has become evident that Prince Kingsley- Faborode of Nottingham & District Amal branch was omitted from the list of TUC Lay Candidates.

For complete clarity the full list of candidates is shown below:-

Lay Members (7 Members at least 2 delegates must be women & at least 1 delegate must be BAME)Tina HolmesLeicestershire*Elected (Woman)Adam AlarakhiaLeicestershireBALLOT REQUIREDSteve CrokeSouth Midlands Postal Scott HartlesScotland No 2 Prince Kingsley-FaborodeNottingham & District Amal Kristopher McGuireGlasgow & District Amal Ian MurphyHarrow & District Sajid ShaikhBirmingham District Amal Lee Starr-ElliotBristol & District Amal 

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

24LTB181 – Election of National Delegations – 2024

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BRT&G Agreement – Para 6.4.1 Sick Pay – Joint Working Group 

Please find attached Joint Statement and updated action plan agreed by the joint working group set up in accordance with the above agreement.

The Joint Working Group have been meeting on a regular basis since its formation in September last year and have made steady progress in identifying the causes and cost of sick absence.

We have also attached an updated action plan to bring Branches up to date with all the activities planned this year. The Group is made up of CWU Postal Executive members and Senior RM Managers.

We hope the actions will result in and bring about a sustained reduction in the overall percentage cost needed to get below the 5.5% target in order to reinstate full occupational sick pay.

Branches should know the Union is continuing to try and reach an agreement on the Attendance procedure itself where the negotiations are continuing where we are attempting to achieve the policies carried out at our recent Annual Conference. Any further progress made will of course be published in due course.

Any enquiries to this LTB please contact: The PTCS Department, email address: khay@cwu.orgor hmaughan@cwu.org

Bobby Weatherall
Acting Assistant Secretary

LTB180

Attendance JWG – Joint Statement final

JWG Action Plan Master.clean

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• TUC Congress
• Labour Party Conference (including Labour Party Women’s Conference)

ELECTION OF NATIONAL DELEGATIONS – 2024

• TUC Congress
• Labour Party Conference (including Labour Party Women’s Conference) 

Further to LTB 154/24 dated 9^th May at the close of nominations on 24^th May the following have been received:-

TUC 

Postal Constituency

NEC (1 Member)Rob WeatherspoonBristol & District Amal*Elected

Lay Members (7 Members at least 2 delegates must be women & at least 1 delegate must be BAME)Tina HolmesLeicestershire*Elected (Woman)Adam AlarakhiaLeicestershireBALLOT REQUIREDSteve CrokeSouth Midlands Postal Scott HartlesScotland No 2 Kristopher McGuireGlasgow & District Amal Ian MurphyHarrow & District Sajid ShaikhBirmingham District Amal Lee Starr-ElliotBristol & District Amal 

Telecoms & Financial Services Constituency   

NEC (1 Member)Ali MoosaMidland No 1, Lincolnshire & South Yorks*Elected

Lay Members (5 Members at least 1 delegate must be a woman & least 1 delegate must be BAME)Josh BarclayGreat Western, Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell, Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey, Mid Wales, The Marches & Nth Staffs, North Anglia, North East, Northern Ireland Telecom,  Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, Scotland No 1,  South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical,  West Yorkshire,*ElectedGraham ColkSouth Wales,  Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell,  Great Western, Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey, Mid Wales, The Marches & Nth Staffs, North Anglia,  North East, Northern Ireland Telecom, Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW,  Scotland No 1, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorkshire,*ElectedFiona CurtisNorthern Ireland Telecom, Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell, Great Western, Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey, Mid Wales, The Marches & North Staffs, North Anglia, North East,  Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, Scotland No 1, South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorkshire*ElectedPeter FrancisCapital, Algus National, Glasgow & Motherwell, Great Western, Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey, Mid Wales, The Marches & North Staffs, North Anglia, North East, Northern Ireland Telecom, Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, Scotland No 1, South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorkshire,*ElectedQuincy RaymondTyne & Wear Clerical, Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell, Great Western, Lincolnshire & South Yorks Meridian, Mersey, Mid Wales, The Marches & Nth Staffs, North Anglia, North East, Northern Ireland Telecom, Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, Scotland No 1, South Wales, West Yorkshire,*Elected (BAME)

LABOUR PARTY

Postal Constituency

NEC (1 Member)No Nominations Received

Lay Members (7 Members at least 2 delegates must be women & at least 1 delegate must be BAME)Tina HolmesLeicestershire*ElectedLaura SnellEastern No 4*ElectedAdam AlarakhiaLeicestershireBALLOT REQUIREDPaul BraithwaiteNorth Lancs & Cumbria Huw DaviesLondon Phoenix Hugh GaffneyGlasgow & District Amal Des HeemskerkEssex AmalPrince Kingsley-FaborodeNottingham District AmalAlan TateLondon RMTDominic WirdnamBristol & District

Telecoms & Financial Services Constituency   

NEC (1 Member)Andrew MercerGreater Mersey Amal, Lincolnshire & South Yorks*Elected

Lay Members (5 Members at least 1 delegate must be a woman & at least 1 delegate must be BAME)Craig AndersonScotland No 1, Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell, Great Western, Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey,    Mid Wales The Marches & North Staffs, North Anglia,  North East, Northern Ireland Telecom, Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorks,*ElectedJacqueline MorreyMid Wales The Marches & North Staffs, Algus National,   Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell,  Great Western, , Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey, North Anglia, North East Northern Ireland Telecom, , Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW, Scotland No 1,  South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorkshire,*ElectedDavid RayTyne & Wear Clerical,  Algus National, Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell,  Great Western, , Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian, Mersey,  Mid Wales The Marches & North Staffs, North Anglia, North East,  Northern Ireland Telecom,  , Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW,  Scotland No 1, South Wales, West Yorkshire*ElectedJoyce StevensonScotland No 1, Algus National,  Capital, Glasgow & Motherwell, Great Western, , Lincolnshire & South Yorks, Meridian,  Mersey,  Mid Wales The Marches & North Staffs, North Anglia, North East, Northern Ireland Telecom,  Portsmouth West Sussex & IOW South Wales, Tyne & Wear Clerical, West Yorkshire*Elected

The ballot timetable is as follows:

Despatch ballot papers:                 30^th  May 2024

Ballot closes:                                     13^th June 2023 (14:00)

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

LTB 179/24 – Election of National Delegations – 2024 – TUC Congress and Labour Party Conference

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Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solution Limited (RMPFSL) – Pay Claim 2024 (Update)

Further to LTB 128/24 (Letter To Branches) issued on 17^th April, we are writing to share an update regarding the Pay Claim for 2024 for all our members in RMPFSL and the Company’s response.

By way of recap, the CWU first submitted the formal Pay Claim on behalf of our members for 2024 back in December of last year in a serious attempt to secure a speedy resolution, in order for any reached agreement to be in place by the pay date of April 2024. Disappointingly, RMPFSL management failed to respond to our claim for approximately five months, however we can now confirm that in the past month we have received a pay offer and have also met with them twice.

The management has now tabled a formal, but ‘closed offer’ on pay, however it is littered with upfront proposals and demands to change several associated terms and conditions of employment aspects, alongside other programmes and activities, all outlined by RMPFSL, based on the need to cut staff and operational costs.

While we are willing to address some needed and difficult changes, there is still little in the way of common ground between us in terms of the conditions and demands placed by RMPFSL, which they require us to meet before they are willing to move forward with the pay claim talks. We also believe that this is unacceptable on RMPFSL’s part, since initially, as mentioned above, we were kept waiting for a response to the Union’s original claim for many months.

Indeed, as if this matter was not difficult enough, at the same time that RMPFSL set out its ‘closed offer’ and linked conditions, they further wrote to the CWU to advise that the Cleaning Incentive Scheme, agreed and outlined in the 2022 / 24 Pay and Associated Agreement, had not achieved its second half financial or recycling targets. This announcement was even more bitter, given the fact that we concluded the terms of this Bonus Arrangement with the assistance of ACAS, based on the strong upfront assurances made by the company that, whilst achieving the recycling target was going to be challenging, the financial target was very much on course and was achievable.

As outlined above, we now find ourselves in another difficult position with RMPFSL concerning pay and conditions, noting our long-standing policy and claim for full harmonisation on terms and conditions with the rest of the Royal Mail Group.

We have advised RMPFSL that we will now need to reflect on their outlined position and formally respond before we are able to resume further negotiations. We have also asked them to reflect on their position and have requested that further meetings are arranged, as both parties have been clear that they remain committed to continuing discussions. Equally, however, there is a marked and considerable gap between each party’s position, which we remain determined to seek to narrow down.

We will continue to update Branches and members accordingly and in due course. Any enquiries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department, quoting reference number 320, email: hmaughan@cwu.org or the Outdoor Department, quoting reference number 120.12, email: Pharacz@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch      

Assistant Secretary            

Bobby Weatherall

Acting Assistant Secretary

LTB 178/24 – RMPFSL Pay Claim 2024 Update

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CWU 2025 Diary 

We have extended the deadline for personalised diaries.

Branches can personalise an area on the front cover of the CWU pocket diary and also have the option to have a personalised page (printed on one side only) which will be inserted near the front of the pocket diary.

The CWU pocket diary is priced at £2.00 and the A5 desk diary is priced at £4.00.

Personalised branch diary orders  

Branch personalised diary orders must be returned by no later than Friday 7^th June. On receipt of your order form, you will be emailed the appropriate template/s with further information.

Complete your template/s as soon as possible and note the return deadline is Friday 14th June.

If you would like to use the content from your 2024 diary template/s and there are no changes, please let me know.

Orders will be based on the following: 

Minimum order to personalise front cover: 250 units
Minimum order to insert page: 500 units
Minimum order to personalise front cover and insert page: 500 units

Branches ordering unaltered diaries should return their completed order form by no later than Friday 20^th September.

We continue to offer bulk discount on non personalised pocket diaries on orders of 1,000 or more for £1.50 per diary.

The diaries will be dispatched from w/c Monday 23^rd September 2024.

All completed order forms and enquiries on this LTB should be sent to Marcia Murray by email mmurray@cwu.org

Kind regards,

Marcia Murray
Communications Department 

24LTB177 CWU 2025 DIARY

DIARY ORDER FORM

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ELECTION OF NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE POSITIONS – 2024

• CWU Young Workers Committee

The NEC has now agreed the 2024 election arrangements for the National positions listed above.  Accordingly please find attached the regulations, nomination forms and candidate consent and biographical details form.

Branches are asked to print the attached forms, complete and sign them and send the forms back electronically to elections@cwu.org by the advertised deadline.

Nominations are on the basis of one member coming from the TFS Constituency and one member coming from the Postal Constituency for each of the 10 CWU regions and two lay members elected by and from the UTAW Branch.   Additionally all candidates must be aged 29 or under at the time of the election.

Branches can only nominate candidates where the Branch has members in the relevant Region.

The term of office for the CWU Young Workers Committee will be from 24^th July 2024 for a two-year period.

Branches will also wish to note that:

• Each candidate needs the nomination of their own branch.
• The election is by means of a branch ballot within each respective constituency i.e. branches with members in the Postal Constituency will vote for the Postal member of the committee within their Region and branches with members in the TFS Constituency will vote for the one TFS member.

The Timetable for the election is as follows:

Nominations Open:              3 June 2024

Nominations Close:              24 June 2024 (14:00)

Ballot opens:                           2 July 2024

Ballot closes:                           23 July 2024 (14:00)

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

24LTB176 – Election of National Representative Positions 2024 – CWU Young Workers Committee

YW Regulations 2024

YW – Postal Nomination Form

YW – TFS Nomination Form

YW – Candidate Biographical and Consent Form

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Election of National Representative Positions – 2024

• Postal Standing Orders Committee
• Telecoms & Financial Services Standing Orders Committee

The NEC has agreed the election arrangements for the National positions listed above.  Accordingly please find attached the relevant election regulations, appendices and nomination forms.

In accordance with the CWU policy of improving proportionality at all levels of the union branches will wish to note that Women and BAME quotas have now been included in the composition of the Standing Orders Committee positions.

Nominations

Although Branches can nominate as many candidates as they wish, candidates must have the nomination of their own Brsnch.

Nominations must have been approved by a properly constituted Branch meeting.

Dispatch and Return of Nomination Forms to CWU HQ

Nomination forms will be sent to branches electronically (attached to this LTB) and the details of the specific dedicated election email address where branches should return completed nomination forms is  included on the nomination form.

Nomination Forms will need to be returned by the advertised closing date to be included in the list of candidates. 

Dispatch and Return of Voting Papers

The respective constituency based voting papers will be sent by email direct to branches at the email address which we hold on file.  Branches should return the completed voting papers by email to the advertised CWU election email address.  Notification will be sent to branches confirming receipt of the voting paper, however it will the responsibility of the branch to ensure that voting papers are returned to the correct email address.

To be included in the ballot voting papers will need to have been returned by the advertised closing date and time.  

Election Timetable and Term of Office 

The election timetable for the above will be as follows:

Nominations Open:                 3 June 2024

Nominations Close:                 24 June 2024 (14:00)

Ballot opens:                              2 July 2024

Ballot closes:                              23 July 2024 (14:00)

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

24LTB175 – Election of National Representatives Positions 2024 – Standing Orders Committees

SOC – ELECTION REGULATIONS

SOC – Nomination Forms

SOC – Biographical and Consent Form