CWU Charter CHARTER - Where We Stand


The Communication Workers Union is a merger of the Union of Communication Workers and the National Communications Union. It brings together almost 300,000 workers in the postal, telecommunications, financial services and wider communications industries. The CWU is the sixth largest union in Britain and the second largest communications union in Europe.

We want Britain to have world-class communications services (both postal and telecommunications) and high quality financial services making use of these communications networks.

The CWU currently has most of its members working for three employers: we have 150,000 in the Post Office, 100,000 in British Telecom, and 3,500 in the Alliance & Leicester/Girobank. Posts and telecommunications were both together in the Post Office until they were separated in 1981 and what was then called National Girobank was part of the Post Office until it was sold in 1990.

By most standards - especially quality of service and price levels - both the Post Office and British Telecom are among the most efficient operators in Europe and some of the very best in the world. We will work constructively with employers to make them competitive nationally and globally and to develop new products and services to ensure maximum employment on a sustained basis.

We are determined to retain the Post Office as an integrated network in public ownership, so that all citizens wherever they live can continue to benefit from a universal service at uniform tariffs providing the best possible quality of service.

The CWU will continue to campaign for a publicly owned, commercially prosperous Post Office. The Post Office unions fought an historic campaign with the public that halted Government plans to privatise Royal Mail and Parcelforce. Now the Post Office must be allowed the commercial freedoms it needs to face the challenges of the future.

Another threat is the continued decline of the Crown Office network. Crown Post Offices provide vital economic and social services in UK High Streets. The CWU will fight the closure programme and seek to retain a substantial number of Crown Offices in the UK.

We shall campaign for a publicly-owned Post Office to be given greater commercial and financial freedom to develop new services which meet the needs of its customers and secure the employment of its staff.

The Post Office must not become a victim of Government inertia. The CWU will campaign to remove of the dead hand of Treasury control on the business, while ensuring it continues to provide a universal and affordable network which puts extending public service before maximising profits.

Specifically we shall press for a change in the application of the external financing limit and in the setting of capital expenditure limits, for removal of Government scrutiny of specific expenditure projects and particular trading projects, and for the opportunity for the Post Office to form joint ventures.

We want to see every home in Britain connected to the telecommunications system, so that every individual, family and community can benefit from modern services and falling real prices.

Great play has been made by the Government about the benefits of competition and privatisation, yet one in ten homes in Britain have seen none of these benefits because they are not even connected to the telephone network. This figure contrasts unfavourably with such countries as the United States, Sweden and Japan, all of which have 95% or more homes with a telephone.

Some sections of the community are even more disadvantaged than others - for instance, only 70% of single parents and only 80% of those on state benefits have a telephone. We want to see the Government and the regulator actively promoting telephone ownership so that everyone has equal and affordable access to the growing range of services available over the telecommunications network.

We want to see Britain among the world's leaders in developing an information superhighway that will further enhance service to customers and strengthen this country's international competitiveness.

We are concerned that, under the current regulatory regime, Britain will not have a genuinely national broadband network. This is primarily because British Telecom and other public telecommunications operators are excluded from carrying entertainment services on their telecommunications networks as a result of a regulatory constraint.

Although cable television operators have been franchised to wire up the country, they are creating a patchwork quilt of different networks using different technologies and typologies. Furthermore one-third of the country has not been franchised at all. We want to see Britain building an information superhighway at least as quickly as international competitors like Germany, Japan and the USA and we are convinced that this can only be done if BT is allowed to play its full role in making the necessary substantial investment.

We shall work for a new, open and accountable regulatory framework for our communications industries that ensures competition is fair and the needs of all customers are properly served.

Regulation provides the key to ensuring that commercial communications businesses continue to provide public services and meet the aspirations of the whole community. We believe that regulation of the whole communications industry- posts, telecommunications and broadcasting - should be brought within the control of a single regulatory body which should:

This communications regulator should be more accountable to the public than is currently the case with Oftel. Its performance should be monitored by a Parliamentary Select Committee responsible for ensuring that it achieves its objectives.

We shall recruit throughout the wider communications industry, so that the maximum number of workers are given the opportunity to benefit from trade union support and services and the best possible terms of employment can prevail throughout the industry.

We shall adopt a positive policy of recruiting throughout the communications industry, building on successes over the past three years by employing appropriate resources and finance towards recruitment in the wider industry. Particular emphasis will continue to be placed on recruiting and organising staff in Cable and Wireless Communications Limited, cable television companies and agencies/contract companies supplying or working in the communications industry.

The communications industry is an expanding area of the national economy and we intend to ensure a CWU presence in all the major companies operating in this sector.

We shall work for a new framework of employment rights so that all employees - whether working fulltime or part- time, whether working on-site or at home - have the same employment protection and all workers have the right to join a trade union.

We shall work for a better framework of employment rights so that all workers are protected from unfair dismissal or unequal treatment and all have equal opportunities at work. We shall press governments and employers to accord workers the right to join and be active in trade unions which would be recognised as their representatives on all grievances and to bargain on their behalf.

We shall actively oppose racism and sexism and all forms of discrimination based on race, creed, religion, age, disability, sex or sexual orientation in both our industries and the wider society.

We shall promote Britain's role in the European Union and work to create stronger economic growth, more social equity and better employment rights throughout all member states together with greater democracy and accountability in all EU institutions.

The CWU is playing an active role in Europe. We have a special relationship with two Labour members of the European Parliament. We have representatives on the two major consultative bodies of the European Commission concerning the communications industry: the Joint Committee on Postal Services and the Joint Committee on Telecommunications Services.

We want to see both a 'broader' and 'deeper' European Union - that is, one open to all the democratic states of Europe and one which fully develops a social dimension.

We shall work with other communications unions worldwide to develop the best possible communications services throughout the global community and to strive for social justice and freedom from oppression for workers throughout the world.

The CWU is the second largest affiliate in Europe and one of the largest in the world of the Communications International which has a total of 254 affiliates from 117 countries.

We have an active international programme which enables us to share the British experience of competition and privatisation with unions from other countries and to work closely with colleagues in those countries which are the home base of competitors to BT and the Post Office.