Wednesday was the start of the second 48-hr Royal Mail strike by Communication Workers Union. PBP stopped by the East Belfast picket and interviewed ‘Robert’.
Robert agreed to the interview if we changed his name. He hopes that more people see the story and come out strong supporting the service and the strikers.
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‘Look at the building. They are carrying that as “the brand” the public image. It shouldn’t be allowed. Look at the postboxes. That shows you how much they care about the service.’
Robert has lived in East Belfast all his life. PBP asked him about his work and life and he’s says he has seen a decline not just in the standards of the workplace and the pay but also in how landlords have kept up the houses. He draws obvious parallels between life renting and life working.
‘They need repairs- instead its easier to change tenants. There aren’t rules. No boundaries. And if there’s a complaint- you get bullied out. You know what I mean if you take an individual work complaint here you get pushed out.’
He talks about how in-your-face the ‘them and us’ culture has become between landlords/Royal Mail owners and the tenants/workers.
‘We were supposed to be a team’ he laughs ‘They just lord it over us now and the jackboot is on, I mean the money they are on is unreal. No man is worth 1,700,000 pounds a year. They CFO is on 1.5 million. We’re out here soaking in the rain.’
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What’s unique is not the observation but the wide unity of the workers holding the line together and building the strike on Royal Mail’s drive to privatise and break up the service. The drive to make Royal Mail is the same drive to make the workers jobless and powerless and break the service apart to sellable bits. The workers like Robert are right to fight.
PBP is asking all their members and branches to share stories of the surge of strikes in the north which has led to the years largest day of strike action yesterday. Out yesterday were Unite’s tech and engineering staff in universities, UCU-member university lecturers and staff, NI Housing Executive’s 15-week long strikers with Unite and the Royal Mail all out on pickets the same day. We are also asking members to take a lead from folks in the Waterford Unite in the Community Branch and invite a speaker to from a picket to your next meeting, put forward a motion of solidarity or donation and arrange for a visit.
Keep building working class solidarity. Keep building the strikes.
The building in Belfast East
Some of the Belfast East Picketers
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll on the Tomb Street Royal Mail picket