Friday, October 23, 2009

In UNISON with Bow Postal Strikers

Picture is of CWU pickets outside the Tredegar Road Delivery Office in Bow, East London this lunchtime.

UNISON Housing Association Branch caretaking steward Paul McCabe is holding our flag (right).

This was a well organised and supported picket on a busy road. There was noticeable support by local residents and cars, vans and lorries passing by. Sky TV News had a satellite camera crew there and they kept complaining that they were unable to complete their interviews due to supporters constantly honking their car horns as they drove past. Local TFL buses, delivery vans, scaffolding trucks and even a Met Police carrier showed their support!

The strikers themselves were apologetic for any inconvenience suffered by the public but were passionate that their strike was not only about saving peoples jobs, protecting wages and conditions but also about making sure that the Post Office remained a public service serving the local community. As a housing officers Paul and I know we rely on the local posties to let us know of any concerns about the elderly or vulnerable residents they visit each day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found out yesterday that in common with a lot of my fellow workers my job future now looks uncertain. Now even Italy is out of recession and Britain is in the worst recession on record what exactly did Gordon mean when he said we were "best placed to survive the recession"? When he said the the Conservatives were wrong about their financial policies what did he mean considering we are now the worst placed economy? What a disaster. Please explain "best placed" and "strongest economy" and "no more boom or bust" in the context that Gordon uses them.

John Gray said...

Hi Anon
Things are very difficult but you forget that that the British economy has contracted significantly less than many of our competitors so it is not surprising that they are coming out of recession first. This is also a worldwide recession not a home grown one.

The positive long term news is that the belief in free and unfettered neo-liberalism has been destroyed and that it has been the worldwide state public activism that has stopped the recession turning into a depression. The penny hasn’t dropped everywhere (mention no names - Lord Mandelson) but there will I think eventually there will be a rebalancing of the economy in favour of a greater role for publically owned and run industries such as Royal Mail as a bulwark against the excesses of the free market.

So there...