Friday, May 11, 2007

Vote Yes for Industrial Action

Me and my fellow postal workers are being called upon to vote for strike or not over this years pay-deal and the strings being attached to the present Royal Mail offer . Needless to say - a Yes vote must be returned .

A grassroots response to the pay offer is here

Headline figures put out by Royal Mail about "crazy" union demands for 27% pay-rise should be ignored . The 27% rise is to be implement over 5 years - a much more modest 5.4% rise a year and i have no doubt that the union would have negotiated some sort of productivity deal and costs savings agreement to off - set it all , per usual .


Inflation figures released states it currently stands at 4.8% . A 0.6% gain in our spending power a year . Woweee!!


Interest rates which effects our mortgages rose to 5.5% and is expected shortly to rise to 5.75% according to those in the know . Some analysts believe rates could reach 6% by the end of the year. (Each quarter of a percentage point rise raises the cost of a £100,000 repayment mortgage by between £15 and £20.)
Now to Agitate , Educate and Organise .

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alan, your mathematics is a little out.

A 27% increase over 5 years is equivalent to (a little less than) a 4.9% increase each year (it is a geometric rather than arithmetic progression). Assuming inflation remains at 4.8%, that is a less than 0.1% gain each year.

An alternative way to look at it: 4.8% inflation over 1 year is equivalent to (slightly more than) 26.4% inflation over 5 years. You gain (a little less than) 0.6% after five years, not each year!

Even more reason for strike action!

ajohnstone said...

many thanks for the explanation and arithmetic lesson . I am appropriately chastised .True to form , i keep reading management bandying about the 27% figure to divert attention and mislead the public .

Imposs1904 said...

Erm, as an SPGBer aren't you against strike action?

'Baffled of Brooklyn'

ajohnstone said...

Only if you were to believe those on the Left and the many anarchists who repeat the cliche , Mr Baffled of Brooklyn .

What we do say though is that the decisions should be made democratically by those involved , so you wont see the SPGB trying to influence the vote , or down on the picket lines , peddling the Socialist Standard , laying down the party line from up high on the best "revolutionary" tactic to conduct an industrial dispute and deciding which union official is the favourite (flavour)of the day , or not , as the case may be .