Mandy: I can’t dis-invent the internet
By Ian Dunt and Alex Stevenson
Peter Mandelson voiced his most exasperated statement yet on the threatened strike at Royal Mail.
There are just two days to go until the first wave of industrial action takes place. The strike has now become all but inevitable after further talks this morning failed to produce a breakthrough deal from the current impasse.
In the latest attempt to crank up government pressure on the Communication Workers’ Union, business secretary Lord Mandelson described the strike as “totally self-defeating”.
His comments reinforced the claim made in a leaked Royal Mail strategy document over the weekend that the strike would “only serve to drive more customers away from Royal Mail” and destroy its reputation for reliability.
Lord Mandelson called on management and the unions to “put behind them, once and for all, the endless cycle of disputes”.
He added: “I will, of course, continue to encourage a settlement. But I cannot impose good industrial relations on the company or disinvent the internet.”
Pointing out that out of its £6.7 billion turnover Royal Mail made less than one per cent profit. “One thing this company can’t afford is strikes and industrial action,” he warned.
Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke, responding to a repeat of the statement in the Commons by postal services minister Pat MacFadden, blamed the government’s “weakness” in abandoning the postal services bill for the present situation.
Lord Mandelson had proposed part-privatising the Royal Mail but opposition from the government backbenches meant the bill was sidelined before the government lost votes in the Commons.
He accused the “dying government” of having “no policy” towards Royal Mail and complained that the next government would face having to deal with “whatever wreckage remains”.
Mr Clarke described the strikes as “a symbol of this government’s continuing inability to modernise and reform our great public services”. And he made plain his dismay at a coming seasonal disruption, adding: “The prospect of the Christmas mail being disrupted looms before us.”
