Expected plans to privatize Royal Mail, the U.K.’s postal service, are already running into opposition.
According to news reports, Member of Parliament Vince Cable is set to introduce legislation later this year that would fully privatize the service, acting on recommendations from former regulator Richard Hooper, who said private capital was required to help Royal Mail stay afloat.
Meanwhile, the Communication Workers Union, the group representing postal workers, blasted the plan, calling it an attempt to get hold 26 billion pounds ($40 billion) worth of pension money belonging to postal workers as well as lay off workers and close post offices and threaten universal service.
The union said it “vows to fight the politically motivated move by all means.” http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/privatisation-is-politically-motivated.html
The idea of privatizing Royal Mail has been active for several years and has been unable to gain traction.
But the issue got new life in May when Royal Mail named Moya Greene, former CEO at Canada Post as its chief executive. During her career in the Canadian government, she was responsible for the privatization of CN (the Canadian National railway), the deregulation of the Canadian airline industry and the commercialization of the Canadian port system http://directmag.com/mail/news/0528-postal-royal/index.html.
