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Tories: Defeat for strikers will help us privatise Royal Mail
Ross Lydall30 Oct 2009
A Conservative government would press ahead with plans to privatise Royal Mail and believes more bidders would be attracted if the union is defeated in the national strike.
The party is keen to go further than the Labour Government and sell off the entire service, rather than the 30 per cent stake that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson wants to off-load.
Today the Communication Workers Union continued its protest against proposed changes to jobs, pay and working practices by bringing workers who redirect badly-addressed mail out on strike. Tomorrow about 70,000 delivery and collection staff will walk out for 24 hours.
It has emerged that Ken Clarke, the shadow Tory business secretary, had met potential bidders for Royal Mail and is said to be ready to include plans for full privatisation in the first Queen's Speech after a Tory general election victory. The Tories are also looking to introduce measures that would ban strike action that was not supported by a majority of all workers being called out on strike. At present strikes are legal as long as a majority is obtained from those voting in a ballot. The CWU action was not backed by a majority of Royal Mail's total workforce.
John Major's Tory government failed to privatise Royal Mail in 1994. The party believes that more than 30,000 jobs will have to be cut as a result of introducing new mail sorting machines. The Tories want to avoid politicians being involved in Royal Mail after guaranteeing the universal delivery service.
