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The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is the main
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
in the United Kingdom for people working for
telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
,
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
,
digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...
(DSL) and postal delivery companies. It has 110,000 members in Royal Mail as well as more in many other communication companies. Formed in 1995, by the merger of the
Union of Communication Workers The Union of Communication Workers (UCW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom for workers in the post office and telecommunications industries. History The union was founded in 1919 as the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) by the merger ...
and
National Communications Union The National Communications Union (NCU) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. The union was founded in 1985 when the Post Office Engineering Union and the Postal and Telecommunications Group of the Civil and Public Services Association merge ...
, its current general secretary is Dave Ward.


Sectors

CWU members work for
Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...
, the
Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
, BT, O2,
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
, Accenture HR Services, EE,
Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
and other communication companies. Members' expertise includes engineering, computing, clerical, mechanical, driving, retail, financial and manual skills. The CWU established the United Tech and Allied Workers to represent workers in the technology industry.


Royal Mail industrial action


2007

The basis of the strike was a disagreement over pay and pensions. On 7 June 2007, the union's postal members voted by 77.5% to strike after a 2.5% pay rise coupled with £350 million every year for five years (totalling £1.5 billion) of cuts was offered. They took their first one-day strike on 29 June 2007, and the second on 12 July and 13 July. The action then progressed to a series of rolling strikes.


2009

Further
industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike action, strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay a ...
was taken in 2009. An overwhelming three to one vote in favour backed the dispute and two days of national strike action were called in October 2009. This followed significant periods of local strike action in London, Bristol and areas of Scotland. Following the national days of action, the TUC were involved in brokering an "interim agreement" that provided a "period of calm" for the union and Royal Mail to negotiate a full and final agreement on the introduction of modernisation and relevant working practices. Following the interim agreement, strike action was suspended and talks held under the auspices of
Acas The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) is a Crown non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to improve organisations and working life through the promotion and facilitation of strong ...
. In December 2009, a national agreement was struck and a ballot of the membership on an agreement on pay and working conditions was carried out. This agreement was overwhelmingly supported by CWU members in January 2010. The agreement increased pay and changed working arrangements, particularly in delivery. The agreement was headed "
business transformation In management it has been said that business transformation involves making fundamental changes in how business is conducted in order to help cope with shifts in market environment. However this is a relatively narrow definition that overlooks ...
" and discussions and implementation arrangements continued nationally and in each workplace on the detail of the agreement. As a result, both the union and Royal Mail claimed to have agreed a fully funded modernisation plan.


BT Industrial Action


2010 BT Industrial Dispute

In early 2010 the CWU balloted all of its BT employed members for strike action over a pay claim for 2010. The ballot result was never announced due to legal challenges but following extensive negotiations CWU reached an agreed settlement on pay with BT. A national ballot of members overwhelmingly agreed the pay deal.


2021 RPE Industrial Dispute & Strike

On 24 February 2021, 170 BT Openreach employees commenced a total of three weeks strike action in opposition to the companies unagreed changes to their Terms & Conditions, along with proposals that could impact taxpayer expenditure for public funded projects. CWU Deputy General Secretary, Andy Kerr commented that "the fact that management’s total intransigence on the issue has resulted in the first industrial action anywhere in BT Group for 22 years tells its own story." The staff involved were Repayment Project Engineers (RPE). Their job involved diverting and/or protecting BT cables during major building works, including local authority and government schemes. To date, the industrial dispute has not been settled and is still debated at executive level.


2022 BT & Openreach Industrial Dispute & Strike

In June 2022, the CWU conducted its first company-wide industrial action ballot in BT Group since 1987. In Openreach, where 28,425 CWU members were entitled to vote, participants recorded a 95.8% ‘yes’ vote for industrial action on a 74.8% turnout. In BT, where 10,353 were issued with ballot papers, another ‘yes’ vote of 91.5% was recorded on a 58.2% turnout. The CWU hoped that such an overwhelming demonstration of workforce anger would persuade management back to the negotiating table were, however, met with BT categorically refusing to re-open 2022 pay negotiations. As a result, the first national industrial action in BT Group for three and a half decades took place on July 29 and August 1 – with the all-out strike days being solidly observed by members in both BT and Openreach. Two further all-out strike days took place Tuesday August 30 and Wednesday August 31. Following this, another four days of strike action was announced for Thursday 6 October, Monday 10 October, Thursday 20 October and Monday 24 October. The dispute, which involves more than 40,000 CWU members working for BT and Openreach, was triggered by BT’s unilateral imposition of real-terms pay cuts for all CWU-represented grades.


Affiliations


Labour Party

The CWU has long been affiliated with the Labour Party; for example
Alan Johnson Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancel ...
, a previous General Secretary, later became a Labour
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) and ultimately held a number of Cabinet posts including
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
. Since 2001, the CWU has donated over £9million to the Labour Party but relationships became strained over Labour plans to privatise
Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...
in 2007 and Dave Ward, the CWU's representative on the Labour Party's
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...
announced he was stepping down from this role because he believed it conflicted with the interests of union members. He was replaced by Andy Kerr. At the CWU Annual Conference 2008 there was much debate about the union's relationship with Labour. It was agreed, and remains union policy that a ballot would be held to cease funds to the party if privatisation of postal services took place. As the privatisation proposal from the Labour government in 2009, the Postal Services Bill, was defeated through the unions campaign, led by the left wing Labour loyalist and long term General Secretary Billy Hayes, with the support of Labour
backbenchers In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
, affiliation has remained in place. Since the election of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government the union has sought to re-define its relationship with the Labour Party. In July 2010 the union's National Executive Committee agreed to nominate and support
Ed Balls MP Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British broadcaster, writer, economist, professor and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exc ...
for Labour leader in the 2010 leadership ballot. In turn, Ed Balls MP supported the unions Keep The Post Public campaign in the summer of 2010 in opposition of the planned coalition government's intention to privatise Royal Mail. In September 2015, CWU endorsed
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
's
campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...
in the Labour Party leadership election. In August 2017, it was announced that the organisation will formally affiliate to
Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
after its ruling executive voted unanimously in favour to join the organisation. General secretary Dave Ward, told the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' that "the general election showed the value of Momentum as part of the wider labour movement", and that the body, which emerged from Corbyn's 2015 leadership campaign, was now "a major political force in the UK", saying it had a "key role to play in securing a transformative Labour government".


1st Class Credit Union

1st Class Credit Union Limited was formed in 1992, as Glasgow District Postal Workers Credit Union, it became the Scottish Postal Workers Credit Union in 1998, before adopting the present name in 2007. A member of the
Association of British Credit Unions The Association of British Credit Unions Limited, commonly known as ABCUL, is the leading trade association for credit unions in Great Britain. ABCUL represents around 70% of credit unions who in turn provide services to 85% of the British credit ...
Limited, it is open to members and employees of the CWU. The
credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...
is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the
Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...
and the PRA. Ultimately, like the banks and building societies, members’ savings are protected against
business failure __NOTOC__ Business failure refers to a company ceasing operations following its inability to make a profit or to bring in enough revenue to cover its expenses. A profitable business can fail if it does not generate adequate cash flow to mee ...
by the
Financial Services Compensation Scheme The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK's statutory deposit insurance and investors compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms. This means that FSCS can pay compensation if a firm is unable, or li ...
. In 2016, it was awarded a large grant of £60,000 by the
Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...
Credit Union Development Fund to strengthen its capital asset ratio.2016 Winners
Credit Union Foundation (retrieved 5 August 2018)


Leadership

The following people have served as General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union: :1995:
Alan Johnson Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancel ...
(UCW) and Tony Young (NCU) jointly :1997: Derek Hodgson and Tony Young :1998: Derek Hodgson :2001:
Billy Hayes Billy or Bill Hayes may refer to: In entertainment * Bill Hayes (actor) (born 1925), American actor and singer * Bill Hayes (television producer), executive producer of ''Jon & Kate + 8'' * Billy Hayes (musician) (born 1985), drummer in Wavves and ...
:2015: Dave Ward The second most senior official is the Senior Deputy General Secretary: :1998: Tony Young :2001: Tony Kearns


References


External links

*
Catalogue of the CWU archives
held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

Coverage from Socialist Worker
plus leaflets, by
Socialist Workers Party (UK) The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party cons ...

Coverage from LibCom.org
by
LibCom libcom.org is an online platform featuring a variety of libertarian communist essays, blog posts, and archives, primarily in English. It was founded in 2005 by editors in the United States and the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Gr ...
.org
1st Class Credit Union
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communication Workers Union (Uk) Trade unions in the United Kingdom Trade unions established in 1995 Communications trade unions 1995 establishments in the United Kingdom Credit unions of the United Kingdom Trade unions affiliated with the Labour Party (UK) London Borough of Merton Trade unions based in London Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress