BRIDGWATER PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY-JOIN US!

This is a call to all those in the Bridgwater area and further afield who are outraged by the government’s attacks on ordinary people and the most vulnerable.

 

With some 80% of austerity measures still to come and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, it is time to act and to act together.

 

We are therefore inviting you to attend the launch meeting of a Bridgwater People’s Assembly, to form part of the network of People's Assemblies that is unifying resistance to austerity across the nation.

 

The strategy of the People's Assemblies is to form a broad coalition both of individuals and organisations. We do not want to be dominated by any group or replace any group. Instead, the aim is to massively increase our effectiveness by acting together.

 

• We call on those enraged by Cameron and co’s deceitful use of the financial crisis, created by their banker friends, to cut taxes for the most wealthy while cutting welfare to the disabled and others most in need. 
• We call on those angered by the government’s use of the crisis as a cover to advance a failed dogma of public sector cuts, privatisations, including of the NHS, deregulation and crony capitalism. 
• We call on those simply shocked by a plan to repair public finances by targeting the poorest first.

 

Please join us at the Railway Club, Wellington Rd, Bridgwater, TA6 5HA at 7:30 pm on August 12^th.

A bitter west-country pre-privatisation dispute

CWU strikers in Bridgwater

118 members of the CWU/Communication Workers Union at the Royal Mail Delivery Office at Bridgwater, Somerset, are on strike for their second Saturday this coming weekend.

The initial causes of the strikes are CWU accusations of managers bullying staff and breaking local and national agreements.

The background is a state of increasing unrest in many West Country Royal Mail workplaces as the ground is prepared for a possible privatisation later this year.

Wildcat strike

Despite Saturday’s second official strike, a gate meeting of postmen and women yesterday, July 3^rd, saw furious CWU members reject walking out on an extra day’s wildcat strike by only a slim majority.

Staff are angry that their senior manager has not been suspended pending a serious investigation into evidence of possible interception and theft of a postman’s mail. 

They are also protesting that during last Saturday’s strike staff were bussed into work illegally-packed into the back of a windowless and seat-less transit van, which ensured local CWU reps were unable to exercise their legal right to picket strike-breakers.

Legitimate trade dispute

Dave Chapple, Bridgwater CWU shop steward said:

"Why have Royal Mail not suspended this Bridgwater manager after 3 weeks, when a postman or woman suspected of the same thing would have been suspended in three minutes?”

Dave Wilshire, CWU Bristol and District Branch Secretary said:

"We would not expect Royal Mail to make fundamental mistakes :there is the question of breaking laws against dangerous driving, the 11-hour rule between shifts and the carriage of people in an unauthorised vehicle. This smacks of desperation and a snub towards the CWU offer of further negotiations”. 

Our members continue to picket peacefully as part of a legitimate trade dispute.

David went on to say “Surely at national if not regional level, there is a Royal Mail director with enough common sense to put a stop to this nonsense and realise Royal Mail will not win this dispute by attempting to bypass the strong union organisation at Bridgwater and the wider Bristol CWU Branch?"

Media friends are invited to a picket-line ‘Solidarity Rally’ at 8.15am this Saturday, 25 Friarn St, TA6 5AU

For further information contact Dave Wilshire on 07909 525740 or Dave Chapple on 0777 6304 276

 

David Wilshire

Branch Secretary

 

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