Sir,
I write concerning the recent disputes at Royal Mail and the planned national strike action.
The first and most common misconception is that the union opposes modernisation. This is nonsense.
The CWU agreed to and helped implement the 2007 pay and modernisation agreement.
It is claimed the pensions deficit is so crippling a burden for the business it can only be solved by savage cuts at best and part or full privatisation at worst. Management estimate that the deficit currently stands at £10 billion.
This is based on the assumption that they will be paying out until their workers reach 86.
The third and most outrageous charge is that the CWU are greedy. How can people who earn well under the national average wage, who have voluntarily taken on more work for no extra pay and who are merely trying to protect their current pay and conditions, be branded greedy?
The assumption implicit in much of the coverage is that striking is easy. It's not. Postal Workers are not rich and losing even two days pay is a tough decision for them to make.
The current dispute within the Royal Mail demonstrates, in microcosm, what is happening in society at large - the many are being made to pay for the incompetence and criminality of the few. I think this is wrong and if you do too you'll support the postmen and women when they strike this Thursday and Friday.
Tyler Chinnick
(Monmouth)