Union accuses Government of sabotaging New Zealand Post
Thursday 23 July 2015
“While finance minister Bill English says the Government does not intend to sell New Zealand Post, they are doing a very
good job at trying to sabotage the state owned postal service”, says Postal Workers Union spokesperson John Maynard.
“Posties may be the only employees in New Zealand compelled to assist private companies to actively undermine the
viability of their own employer. The National Government’s Postal Services Act 1998 requires posties to deliver the mail
of private sector mail companies which do not have their own delivery network.
“The Government has also been consistently pressuring New Zealand Post to reduce its costs. The company’s response has
included privatising Post Shops and reducing delivery services.
“To the marketing advantage of its private sector competitors New Zealand Post has also loudly proclaimed its delivery
service reductions while at the same time quietly removing many hundreds of kerb side post boxes against strongly
expressed objections from within local communities.
"We have just discovered this evening that the two post boxes outside the office of the Postal Workers Union in
Wellington City were quietly removed sometime today.
“Like everyone else the Postal Workers Union is well aware of the changes in communication technologies, however the
Union believes the company’s response is less about the economics of declining mail volumes and more about the ideology
of privatisation.
“Having voted for the deregulation of the letter market while a cabinet minister, one of Bill English’s predecessors, ex
finance minister Bill Birch, is on the board of a private sector mail company directly benefitting from the reduction in
postal services by New Zealand Post.
“No one from the Government or New Zealand Post has denied the Union’s public statements that New Zealand Post is
undergoing a process of “privatisation by stealth”. Neither has the CEO responded to an urging by the Union to assure
posties that New Zealand Post is not being deliberately run into the ground.
“Bill English may also be doing some softening up as leaks from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations
reveal pressure from international corporates to try to obstruct state owned enterprises from competing with the private
sector and stopping Governments from establishing new state owned enterprises. Saying that the Government “had no
business being in business” Bill English appears to be parroting the TPPA agenda.
“Posties remain popular figures in the community as the front line of New Zealand Post but many are feeling increasingly
embarrassed when asked by residents and business owners on their delivery rounds about service reductions. Many posties
are also currently struggling with the complexities and lack of preparedness of the newly restructured delivery rounds
which have been imposed on them.
“The Postal Workers Union continues to support an efficient, sustainable and accessible state owned postal service.
Hundreds of millions of mail items a year are important to postal workers, their jobs and their service to the
community, however the Government is not showing the same respect to those citizens and businesses who value receiving
and sending mail".
ends