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It's in the post

Martin Rosenbaum | 16:35 UK time, Friday, 28 September 2007

It's the day before a national postal strike.

The leader of the Communication Workers' Union writes to the Royal Mail, explaining why their stance leaves the union 'no alternative' but to go ahead with the strike. He says the Royal Mail should return to the negotiating table rather than 'feign ignorance of our constitutional procedures and make disparaging comments' about the union's executive.

Meanwhile the union leader has been the victim of what he denounces as a 'scurrilous article' in the capitalist press on the 'newsworthy theme of dissent within the Executive'. He says the piece in the Financial Times is 'journalistic mischief making'.

Not 2007. This is 1996, and the union leader in question is Alan Johnson, then General Secretary of the CWU, now Secretary of State of Health. According to the 'scurrilous' and 'mischief making' piece in the FT, Mr Johnson was actually opposed to the strike action which his union executive was insisting on.

These documents were obtained by the 91Èȱ¬ from the Royal Mail through a freedom of information request. Other documents released show how Royal Mail executives worried about the threat of competition which they felt would strikes would encourage.

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