Postal union in revolt over pay

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ESS 'ST Moving in-Gadaffi "Marxist-Leninist" Fedayin, wounding several of them and also brutally drove out unemployed demonstrators from the town hail which they had occupied.

The Bazargan regime, desperate to rebuild a more controllable repressive apparatus than the Khomeini committees, has successfully had the committees removed from army barracks in Tehran in an effort to reestablish military discipline.

At the same time Bazargan has started to look for outside enurroc af cinnart Last week Major Jalioud, Gadaffi's deputy in the Libyan military dictatorship visited Iran and the two governments agreed to coordinate their middle eastern policies.

And Bazargan has begun to rebuild links with American imperialism.

At the time of going to press an overwhelming defeat looks certain for the UPW bureaucrats led by Tom Jackson, on their recommendation of the 1979 wage deal.

A UPW Special Conference held last December discussed the 1979 pay claim.

The Executive Council proposed an: 8% increase, consolidated on basic rates, 8% increase in allowances, full consolidation, three hour reduction in the work week, an increase in annual leave, a reduction in incremental scales and an escalator clause.. This claim represented (to some members) 24.4%.

After the conference decision, most of the negotiations were conducted in secrecy.

Branch secretaries were instructed not to publish, in any form, some of the important branch circulars dealing with them.

The UPW negotiators were anxious that the mass of members should not be aware of what was going on.

What was about to come did not form any part of the claim as agreed by the Special Conference.

The first sign of the treacherous deal which included the so-called "efficiency agreement" came in March, when a branch circular revealed that the "efficiency agreement"' was tied to consolidation of the 5% and £3 of the £6 from 1975.

The major part of the efficiency agreement included the introduction of part-time staff and work traffic measurement-both of which are in direct opposition to UPW conference policy.

The bureaucracy ignored completely conference decisions in even attempting to discuss them with management let alone reach agreement.

The Post Office-not for the first time-easily won over Tom Jackson's motley negotiating team at the final negotiating scene, In fact, Tom Jackson actually tried to sell the rank and file with their own moneynamely consolidation.

And so the penultimate scene was set when the efficiency agreement was tied to consolidation of 5% and £6 (still leaving 7% from 1975 unconsolidated) and was presented to a special meeting of District Organisers at a plush Bournemouth hotel on 11 April.

This meeting was supposed to be a briefing session in order that the message be spread as to how good the "deal" was.

Jackson had the audacity to proclaim that this was the best deal "won" by any union and he was proud on behalf of the executive to present it for acceptance.

Arch Stalinist Maurice Styles who has a record of sell-outs stretching back 10 years, fully supported Jackson's argument.

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