20 Foot Post Box tours the east and west midlands

A 20-foot post box and giant postcard will be visiting towns and cities in the East and West Midlands to highlight the government’s plans to sell off part of Royal Mail to a foreign competitor and we are inviting all MPs, MEPs and Councillors to attend together with the local press and media.

Postal workers will be leafleting and petitioning in town and city centres to galvanise the ever-increasing public support, which seeks to convince the PM Gordon Brown to abandon his ill-thought plans to part privatise the successful public service that is the Royal Mail.

This is part of a national tour from John O’Groats to Lands End which began back in May.

Lee Barron, CWU Midlands Regional Secretary is inviting everyone to attend and said, “We believe, as do the huge number of public that has turned out to support us, that such a move will risk fracturing one of Britain's greatest public services and put our universal (one price goes anywhere) service under direct threat.

“Any investor will only be interested in lining the pockets of their shareholders and not delivering a truly universal first-class service to the public. The CWU in the East and West Midlands are in no doubt that, it will also lead to further job losses and severe reduction in postal services within the region. We should be looking for ways to improve the service not wreck it. Royal Mail is one of the most efficient and cheapest postal services in Europe; they have just announced a doubling of their operating profit, while private mail companies, including TNT, have seen huge profit reductions.”

The Schedule

Monday 22nd June – 11.00am Stoke on Trent – Hanley Town Centre Market Square

Tuesday 23rd June – 11.30am Bilston, Church Street (constituency of Pat McFadden MP Minister responsible for the Royal Mail)

Wednesday 24th June – 11.00am Summer Lane in Birmingham and 12.30 Dresden Place in Coventry

Thursday 25th June – 10.30am Abington Street in Northampton and 2.00pm Clock Tower in Leicester

Friday 26th June – 10.30am Old Market Square in Nottingham

Saturday 27th June – 10.45am Spot Centre in Derby

Unemployment to keep rising until the end of next year, says TUC

Although some economists are saying that the end of the recession may be in sight, the TUC is today (Tuesday) warning that unemployment will carry on rising for many months even after the UK economy has begun to pick up.

Using official figures and comparing the current recession to the economic downturn of the early 1990s, the TUC is predicting that the number of people losing their jobs will carry on increasing until at least the autumn of next year.

There has always been a delay between the economy starting to grow and unemployment beginning to fall, as cautious employers make use of capacity among existing staff before recruiting new employees and want to be sure of recovery before expanding their businesses. In the last recession, GDP began to grow in the autumn of 1991, but it was 18 months later before unemployment started to fall.

But this recession is already proving to be much worse than the 1990s recession. The largest quarterly fall in GDP in the 1990s was 1.2 per cent, but the decline between the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 was 1.9 per cent.

The biggest fall over any four consecutive quarters in the 1990s was 2.2 per cent, yet GDP fell by 4.1 per cent between early 2008 and the first quarter of this year.

During the shallower 1990s recession, unemployment rose for 11 consecutive quarters – a period of just under three years. And unemployment rates did not return to their pre-recession levels for seven years. This time around unemployment has only been rising for five consecutive quarters, suggesting we may only be half way through unemployment rising, and some years before it falls to the level before the recession started.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Some now say that we have a recovery, but even if this is not a false dawn, as others fear, it will be years before the thousands of people who have lost their jobs or who will lose them in months to come will see anything to celebrate.
“That’s why tackling unemployment must remain the Government’s number one priority. Speeding up the process of getting people back into work and into jobs with decent pay will not only benefit the two million people currently out of work, but will also give the economy the spending boost it needs.”

The 4th TUC Social Policy Forum

The Welfare Reform Bill is the most controversial social security legislation since 1997, and a possible indication of what the next round of welfare state reforms may look like, whichever Party wins the next general election. Reforms such as tougher benefit rules for parents and disabled people, a new ‘work for your benefits’ scheme and more contracting-out of Jobcentre Plus services have all raised the highest level of trade union concern about benefits policy for several years.

That is why the next TUC Social Policy Forum will be entirely devoted to the Welfare Reform Bill. TUC Social Policy Forums are unique in providing a channel for discussions of policy that also pay full attention to associated workplace and industrial issues, and the speakers therefore include experts from both unions and external organisations. The Forum will take place at Congress House at 10.30 on Friday 3 July. Places are free, and you can register using the attached form or online: visit http://www.tuc.org.uk/events/detail.cfm?event=3107