THE political left in Britain is in confused disarray. The 2019 general election, although it saw the second highest total of Labour votes in five general elections, has demoralised many.
The Tories won 365 seats on 43.6 per cent of the total votes. Labour won 262 seats on 32.1 per cent. It took about 38,264 votes to elect a Tory and 50,836 to elect a Labour MP.
In Scotland it took 511,838 votes to elect Labour’s single MP (and a spectacularly useless one at that) and just 25,882 votes to elect an SNP MP. It took 100,048 votes to elect a Scottish Tory which might just concentrate Conservative minds on the possibilities that proportional representation offers.
Unions try to cover up their role at Australia Post
Facing mounting discontent among postal workers, which erupted in two recent meetings at Sydney’s Alexandria delivery facility, the trade unions are desperately trying to rewrite their record of supporting and enforcing the hated Alternative Delivery Model (ADM) and Australia Post’s restructuring.
Australia Post parcel lockers in Sydney [Credit: Maksym Kozlenko, Wikimedia Commons]
As a result of the ADM, posties are often working 12-hour shifts and unable to complete their delivery rounds, known as beats. The use of casual and contract labour is increasing, and workers who have been on the job for decades are being forced out by over-work, resulting in the thousands of job cuts that management wants.
Glasgow Mail Centre. Source: Google Maps Throughout this crisis, every decision we make puts the health of our people and customers first. We have put in place a range of preventive measures to protect both our customers and our colleagues. She added: We were the first UK company to put in place social-distancing measures in relation to parcel delivery. We pioneered contact-free delivery. We are temporarily not handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures. As well as encouraging good hand hygiene, standard ways of working have been revised to ensure that colleagues maintain appropriate social distancing at all times. All staff have been briefed about the social distancing measures jointly agreed by local management and the CWU.
We wish them a speedy recovery. We have carried out an intensive clean of the site and have organised additional cleaning of key touch points and all communal areas. We are keeping the Communications Workers Union and colleagues updated. Throughout this crisis, every decision we make puts the health of our people and customers first. We have put in place a range of preventive measures to protect both our customers and our colleagues. We were the first UK company to put in place social-distancing measures in relation to parcel delivery. We pioneered contact-free delivery. We are temporarily not handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures.
POSTAL workers won a landmark deal today, securing their pay and job security for the next two years.
The agreement, negotiated with Royal Mail by the Communications Workers Union (CWU) gives 162,000 “posties” a pay increase backdated to April, and cuts their working hours.
It came following a long-running dispute with the privatised business, which provoked a 98.4 per cent vote for strike action in April after it sought to impose worsened working conditions.
The agreement includes a 3.7 per cent pay rise, a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and a one-hour reduction in the working week.
The CWU said that its value was equivalent to a 6.5 per cent pay increase over two years.