Billy's Speech: Merseyside & South West Lancs branch AGM

Thank you for your invitation – I greatly value the opportunity to address you.

These are difficult times for the working class and poor people.  The Coalition Government is determined to make you pay for the failure of the financial markets and the private investors.

They said their austerity policies would resolve the public spending deficit, create private sector jobs, expand manufacturing, and see growth in the economy.

By all these measures, their policy has failed.

The economy has seen a fall into recession in the last quarter.  In total there has been only 0.3% growth in the economy since September 2010.

This stagnation has seen a rise in unemployment, with job losses now occurring across both the public and private sector.

Yet without growth we cannot pay off the deficit.

It is growth in the economy which increases tax revenue to government.  Through job creation, there is more money to the Treasury, and less expenditure on welfare.  That’s the way the deficit really falls.

But the Coalition Government is determined to continue with their mistakes – whatever the cost.

These are difficult times and we must support those people defending their living standards – whether that’s public and private sector workers striking for their pensions – or disabled people opposing the cuts to Disability Living Allowance.

I have to say that we cannot accept the suggestion that Labour must endorse these cuts.

Nor can we accept wage cuts – whether that’s  through inflation, or through the imposition of 1% limits.

It does not matter who says these things.  The answer to recession cannot be to make workers and unemployed people accept that their living standards are going to be slashed.

So the Union will press both inside the TUC and the Labour Party for an alternative economic policy which expands the economy.

We do not accept arguments that pretend that there is no alternative.

There are always choices in politics.  Whether the wealthy pay or the working class pay is the choice we face.

Now if I can go on to some industrial matters.  Firstly on some issues concerning telecoms.

Pay

The Union agreed a three year pay deal with BT in 2010, giving 3% consolidated backdated from April to January each year for 2010, 2011 and 2012 – a 9.3% increase overall.  The agreement stated that if RPI was above 3.2% or below 2.5% in November 2011 (the figure published in December), both parties agree to meet to seek to ensure that the impact of a volatile RPI is mitigated, both for the business and employees.

The CWU has now met with BT three times since December.  They have confirmed that the 3% already agreed for 2012 will be paid in January, but they have made it clear they are not willing to offer anything more.  They are citing uncertainty over the economy and concerns over the pension deficit, which is currently undergoing its triennial review, as reasons for not increasing the settlement. The CWU has put forward a robust case for an improved offer, citing the increased cost of living, BT’s pre-tax profits were up 36% in the second quarter, operating costs were down by 3%, BT is highly competitive and its share price has risen 54% since the time of the 2010 pay deal.

Feedback from branches and members shows they see BT’s position as breaking a promise to mitigate the impact of inflation. The cost of essentials like food and fuel have risen dramatically and CWU members are finding it harder to make ends meet.  Costs for BT on the other hand have fallen as a result of cost cutting measures which put more pressure on our members in the workplace.   Members expect us to do everything we can to ensure that BT stick to their promise and seek to mitigate the impact of inflation, and that is what we will do.  We’re hoping to get some more meeting dates in the diary over the coming weeks to continue talks, and we’ll continue communicating with members and inviting their feedback.

Performance Management

There has been an ongoing issue on performance and sick absence management in BT which was a major focus of debate at conference last year, with widespread reports of BT HR management processes and policies being used in a punitive manner.   Members were being dismissed regardless of mitigating circumstances and managers were not using their discretion when making decisions.  Conference agreed that unless BT ceased applying these policies in a cavalier manner by 31^stNovember 2011 the Union would ballot for Industrial Action, including strike action. This led to a series of talks last year which were constructive and resulted in a joint statement, an escalation process for individual cases not being dealt with fairly, confirmation from BT that they are committed to the ‘Our Approach to Performance’ agreement from March 2010, and an acknowledgement from BT that there are areas they can improve on.   Recent feedback from branches shows that there are still areas where BT is not meeting the letter or the spirit of ‘Our Approach to Performance’ and this is clearly unacceptable.  I know that Grace Mitchell and other T&FS Officers are taking this back to BT, and that they are continuing to monitor the situation and are seeking further improvements.  The ‘Development Needed’ process is of particular concern – it was supposed to be used as a tool to support people but instead it is being used in a punitive, negative way and clearly that’s something we have to tackle.

Resourcing

Talks with Openreach over resourcing are continuing in an effort to prevent the company from reneging on various recent agreements covering the creation of 1,000 new permanent jobs in field engineering and the insourcing of work.

We are pursuing four main objectives which are:

1. For Openreach to set out a clear resourcing plan that meets the terms of existing agreements with the CWU.
2. To secure an increase in permanent direct labour to ensure the company is not reliant on third party contractors to carry out day-to-day work.
3. To maintain, and enhance where possible, the terms and conditions of current and future employees, and…
4. To enhance future employment prospects and job security.

Some progress has been made with a recruitment process finally about to begin for new apprentices, 500 of whom should have been in place 4 months ago under our agreement with BT.

We are seriously concerned at the moment about Openreach’s decision to sign a new contract with Kelly and Quinns to provide additional 3rd party resource at a time when permanent recruitment is finally getting underway.  Davie Bowman and the Openreach team are working to ensure that BT properly gets to grips with resourcing because if not there is no doubt they will have a serious industrial problem on their hands.

Now briefly onto Royal Mail.

The current position on privatisation is that the Minister concerned, Ed Davey, suggested to us this week that the government would not be looking to sell Royal Mail before 2013.

There are reasons why this is being slowed down.  The first problem is that the European Union Commission is considering the application for state aid to Royal Mail by the government.  This covers just under £2 billion being used to restructure the industry, and the government taking on the pension deficit.

At the moment, the commission is aiming to come to a decision by the start of April.

The Union is involved in serious lobbying – this includes meeting with MEPs, European civil servants, and the Commissioner.  We have further meetings in Brussels during February.

The second problem, is the new regulation regime that Ofcom are proposing.  The Union’s campaign against Postcomm was that their regulations were unfair, uncompetitive and made Royal Mail subsidise the competition.

Ofcom has recognised this and is planning changes on access which are much fairer for Royal Mail.

We don’t accept Ofcom’s proposals to remove price controls for universal service products – this would mean big rises for domestic customers and small businesses who have nowhere else to go.

But whatever the final decisions, the new regime in April will be better than Postcomm’s system.

But any investors are likely to want to see that the regulation is working before buying Royal Mail.  So Ed Davey guesses this would take the sale into 2013.

We don’t necessarily accept this – it may prove to be true, but it is Osborne rather than the Lib Dems like Davey, who call the tune on the economy.

The government could go for a bargain basement sale – like they did on Northern Rock.

We will continue to oppose privatisation by whatever means available to us.  We will shortly be publishing for the activists a complete view of the privatisation campaign.

I will leave matters there, but I’m happy to take any questions, and thanks for listening.