‘Rock-solid unity’ across Home Counties & London
Postal February 23 2018Week One of the nationwide Four Pillars Tour concluded with a packed reps briefing in central London this afternoon, following equally lively and positive gatherings in Hertfordshire, Kent and Hampshire earlier in the week.
Over 500 local unit reps have attended the four meetings of ‘Home Counties & London Week’ – which have engaged our frontline Royal Mail activists from the Anglia, Southeast, Southcentral and London Divisions.
“It’s been a fantastic start to the tour,” enthused deputy general secretary postal (DGSP) Terry Pullinger. “We’ve had enthusiastic response everywhere, detailed questions from our reps and open and honest responses and discussions.
“And at every meeting so far, what’s coming over is rock-solid support for the Four Pillars National Agreement, a determination to get a big ‘Yes’ vote in the forthcoming ballot and a unity of purpose to take this industry forward into a positive future.”
On Day One, Ashford in Kent had the honour of kicking-off the National Tour, and over 100 reps from delivery offices, mail centres and other units in the Southeast Division came together to hear Terry’s summary of the deal on pensions, pay and the shorter working week, and further details on the scheme from assistant secretary Ray Ellis.
Our outdoor and indoor secretaries, Mark Baulch and Davie Robertson respectively, gave comprehensive presentations on our operational pipeline, and assistant secretary Andy Furey explained how the agreement will impact on the Royal Mail grades which he represents.
After questions and answers from the floor – dominated by the subjects of pensions and working hours – our DGSP gave a rousing closing speech, at the end of which he told reps that “this union is proud of you – are you proud of your union?”
“Yeeeeeees,” roared back the audience.
Speaking afterwards, Canterbury area delivery rep Jean Roberts said that the Four Pillars agreement was “excellent” and that “there’s nothing we could have got better.
“We know there will be changes, but they will be negotiated changes.”
And Crawley Delivery Office rep Scott Barter was looking forward to taking the information from the briefing back to his members.
“Our members should be very proud,” he continued, adding: “This shows us all, and also the rest of the country what can be achieved when workers all stick together.”
The second day saw the senior team arrive in the Hertfordshire town of Royston to brief representatives from the union’s Anglia Division – and here, the meeting opened with a minute of applause in respect of the late Dave Roebuck, a former Divisional Representative who sadly passed away recently.
Here again, the speeches and presentations were followed by contributions from the floor and as well as speaking at the meeting, reps once again also took the opportunity to share their views on the CWU’s facebook live facility – which has been generating rapidly increasing interest among postal workers.
Luke Smith, deputy branch secretary Eastern No5, and his branch colleagues were planning to “do a whole round of gate meetings” across their patch, and remarked that “we’ll be talking about where we started and where we’ve ended up,” while Essex Amal’s Kevin Simpson made the point that “what we’re doing on pensions is not just for us, but for every single working man and woman and for future generations.”
Day Three of the Tour called in at Basingstoke, where Terry challenged his audience to be “louder and prouder than the other Divisions” after giving the assembled activists the opportunity to question him and his team of national officers on the details of the deal.
Basingstoke Delivery Office deputy rep Phil Gordon said that the day’s meeting had been “very informative. There’s a good path to the future. The union have worked very, very hard for us and I’m very happy with it.”
Balwinder Bungha, night rep from HWDC described the briefing as “excellent.
“We’ve got the pensions, the pay rise, and we’ve got to stick together,” he continued, adding: “I’ll go back and share what I’ve heard today and strengthen everyone together.”
Attending from Swindon Mail Centre, Sandra Absalom was also looking forward to reporting back to her members at Swindon Mail Centre, remarking that the agreement was “a really good result – and members have not lost any money” and Emsworth Delivery Office rep Lisa Harding agreed, saying: “It’s all been receive very well and everyone’s confident with how it’s going.”
Central Hall in Westminster hosted this afternoon’s London Division briefing, bringing Week one to a lively end.
And as at the week’s previous three events, the audience of reps heard full details from our DGSP and his senior team of all the various aspects of the Four Pillars agreement.
Questions and contributions were asked and answered in another lengthy and informative Q&A session and Terry concluded the gathering with another rousing speech.
*Next week is ‘Northern Week’ and the Tour will be heading to Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast.
While the briefings have been under way, the CWU’s facebook page has been open for live comments and questions as well – and thousands have so far taken part in this extended discussion.
And our union’s head of comms, Chris Webb, has also been putting some of the facebook enquiries to Terry and his team.
“The social media engagement this week has been great,” he said, adding: “Please keep your comments and questions coming in next week as well.