In another sign of the growing split over privatization and deregulation between Tony Blair’s “new” Labour Party and Britain’s unions, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has vowed to take whatever action are necessary to protect its members---including ending financial support for the Labour Party. The sources of this dispute are a planned restructuring at British postal company Consignia that is expected to result in massive layoffs, and the government’s plan to deregulate the postal industry. Despite laws forbidding it from striking over political issues, the CWU will also likely hold a fifteen-minute strike this week in order to maintain the authorization granted for more drastic industrial action by a strike vote among postal workers.
See CHRISTOPHER ADAMS and SARAH LAITNER, Financial Times, March 24, 2002