COMMUNICATIONS union CWU is fighting to keep post offices open and running amid a controversial programme of closures, privatisation and neglect.

With plans to “franchise” 74 post offices by handing them over to high-street retailer WH Smith, an estimated 800 post office workers’ jobs are at risk.

Research by the CWU shows that franchising Crown Post Offices to WH Smith results in longer queueing time, substandard service, reduced services, inferior advice given on products and poor disabled access.

In addition, local economies and lives will be hit as quality jobs are replaced with low pay insecure work.

The union represents workers in the network as well as those across the Royal Mail Group who come into contact with post offices daily.

Although the public has been vehemently opposed to the franchises, and given how it will be bankrolled using public money, no public consultation was taken in the decision into privatisation.

Campaigners are asking why the decision has been denied to the public — the rightful owners of these post offices.

They also believe that handing it over to a “failing retailer,” whose business model is based on low-wage part-time employment and whose future is reported to be in jeopardy, can only be seen as sacrificing the post office network to “prop up WH Smith.”

At the kick off of the Save Our Post Office campaign, the CWU’s general secretary Dave Ward said it was good to see people “debating policies and taking to the streets to support the campaign.

The CWU is also campaigning for
a state-owned Post Bank to be established in the Post Office

“The campaign is vital given the background of the privatisation agenda, Tory austerity and the assault on our high streets,” Ward told the Star.

“We know that Prime Minister Theresa May claims austerity is over, but you only need to walk down a street to see that it is continuing apace: whether it’s the boarded up shops, the franchising of post offices, or even the growing number of homeless people on our streets.”

Ward added that they want everyone to get involved in the campaign to stop the privatisation from taking place. An online petition has seen close to 3,000 signatures so far.

“Together, in solidarity, we can fight this move and also look to the future with plans for a successful post office network that delivers for local communities,” he said.

The CWU is also campaigning for a state-owned Post Bank to be established in the Post Office to cater for the needs of vulnerable consumers, businesses and rural communities.

They say access to trusted banking is at the core of the campaign.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has spoken in support of the concept several times over the years.

In Labour’s 2017 manifesto, the party committed to ending the closure of Crown Post Office branches, which they say plays a major role in serving communities.

“We will also set up a commission to establish a Post Bank, owned by the Post Office and providing a full range of banking services in every community,” it says.

The CWU is calling on members of the public to write to their local MPs asking them to urge the Minister for the Post Office, Kelly Tolhurst, to halt the privatisation and sign an online petition addressed to business, energy and industrial strategy secretary Greg Clarke to abandon the franchising programme.

Details of these can be found at www.saveourpostoffice.co.uk

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