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UNI europa Post & Logistics Lobby-Day in Brussels supported by the youth



31 MEPs were contacted in one day!!!



UNI europa Post & Logistics held a special lobby day on 1 March 2011 in the European Parliament in Brussels to promote the written declaration WD 94/2010 on postal market liberalisation and point out the negative consequences for Europeans from this move in. More than 30 persons answered the call to come to Brussels amongst them several young Trade Unionists.



One of the highlights of the days was the “Lunch debate” organised together with the Austrian Trade Union Confederation in Brussels, the Austrian Chamber of Labour, Verdi and GPF. 7 MEPs discussed 2 hours about the consequences of postal liberalisation and how to secure the universal service obligation, the quality of services and the quality of employment in the future. All participants agreed that corrections are necessary as this liberalisation didn’t “deliver” what the European Commission and economists have promised. Methods must be found to guarantee the financing of USO to get competition on quality and innovation and to get minimum standards for the employees.



The participants of the lobby day also arranged several personal meetings with MEPs from more than 12 different countries and the biggest political groups. With personal stories and their national experiences, the Trade Unionists tried to convince MEPs to support their concerns and demands and help to save postal services in Europe by signing the written declaration. WD 94/2010 which has been lunched in December 2010 with the aim to get a clear impact assessment of the negative consequences of postal liberalisation by the Commission, to guarantee secure postal services in Europe, to save social standards in the postal sector and to support national governments with the implementation of the 3^rd postal Directive.



The declaration can be signed until 23^rd of March 2011. UNI europa Post & Logistics will organise more actions and meetings in the next weeks to make the Declaration a success. The strength of a Trade Union movement is the ability to send affected persons and workers representatives to the European Parliament to make it more visible to MEP’s the impact of their political decisions. This may provoke a re-thinking of the Deputies (MEP’s) about their political program and to ask for a correction of the processes they have initiated. Most of the MEPs who were visited promised their support and that they would sign the written declaration. UNI europa Post & Logistics will stay in contact with these supporters and follow up on their promises to sign the declaration.



One concern that is increasingly being expressed in the meetings and events is the need to maintain and improve on the universal service, there is increasing concern from unions in their national dealings that funding and maintaining a 5 day fully funded low cost, quality universal postal service is becoming problematic. UNI europa Post & Logistics has also got this impression from meetings and proposed plans for more work on dealing with the postal market by the European Commission, that in fact “softening up”and preparation work is on the way to consider limiting the USO. To save postal services in Europe and guarantee every citizen a minimum service of 5 days all over the country at uniform prices, the support of the European Parliament is essential. Therefore UNI will continue to involve the MEPs and keep the discussion alive in the European institutions to maintain these services. “We don’t want to make the same mistake as we did in 2007 when the parliament agreed on the total liberalisation of the postal market and where we were not able to avoid the worst and we failed somehow to inform MEPs about the consequences of their decision”, says Cornelia Berger, UNI europa Post & Logistics.



The young Trade Unionists as workers and consumers of postal services understood well the issues and were motivated and committed to convince MEPs. Even though it is not always easy to get in contact with the Deputies of your country and sometimes the attitude is a little bit unexpected, UNI europa youth gave their commitment to keep on fighting in the name of 2,5 million postal workers in Europe.



At the end of the day, the UNI Europa Post & Logistics lobby day was a success; more than 30 Trade Unionists contacted more than 30 MEPs. UNI hopes now that many members of the European Parliament will sign the written declaration WD0094/2010 and help us to save the future of postal services in the regions, in the countries and in the European Union!



You can follow up our campaign on: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Blogs/ProtectOurPost.nsf/