GMC WALKOUT...AGAIN

[happy hibee]

Edinburgh mail centre and distribution on strike this Thursday 24th sept 4am til 4am Friday 25th sept pickets will be at the gates from start of shift, we will be stopping all vans and expect them to respect our industrial action by not crossing the picket line. managers started briefing staff in d`o`s on Monday that they will be taken off pay if they refuse to cross picket line so they are gonna be sending bodies home if they refuse, we will challenge all drivers who are either picking up mail or bringing in collections so you should ask your manager at the start of your shift what is happening.

[emanon66]

Management are still refusing to give us back our 20 minute grace break. and we cant go from unofficial to official strike.

Don't know how the early shift went but late shift were allowed their grace break and told it would be reviewed on a daily basis for now, personally I feel they didn't want to antagonise any more at the moment as there is one shitload of mail sitting in that Mail Centre and they need us to get it out there and they know it.

[stewiegriffin]

Management are still refusing to give us back our 20 minute grace break. and we cant go from unofficial to official strike.

Don't know how the early shift went but late shift were allowed their grace break and told it would be reviewed on a daily basis for now, personally I feel they didn't want to antagonise any more at the moment as there is one shitload of mail sitting in that Mail Centre and they need us to get it out there and they know it.

Yup we were told that earlier as well .. they won't want to rock the boat because it's in choppy waters.

Every single bit of incoming mail was stored in trailers tonight, dunno how long that'll last, afaik it was going to Newcastle.

[thehappyones]

yes..Area rep got the grace breaks re-instated but on the other hand they have moved our haddys to an earlier time through E.A ,so gave on one hand took with the other .Also i think you are prob,right about branch wide strike ...would expect this to be cancelled !.Although last night on late shift it was pretty low key ,and i dont think the linos knew excatly what was going on with regards to all the mail.

[glesga nutter]

driver taken off pay for not crossing picket line why did the rest of the drivers not walk

[stewiegriffin]

driver taken off pay for not crossing picket line why did the rest of the drivers not walk

AFAIK the drivers were allowed to cross the line, most likely incase it sparked a wildcat again, but aurely that then defeats the purpose of solidarity when colleagues are on strike.

The drivers are having a meeting today about the Monday night shift working "agreement" , amongst other things, and i'm guessing all this will crop up into the mix. Why don't the reps have "team talk" style meetings with staff, or communicate with them some other way as to what the hell the status of the strikes are, because several reps were even unsure if the planned Tuesday strike was still on or off !!

[mjw]

According to the RM website updated today the strike on Mon into Tues is still on, thought everything had all been cancelled to wait for the national ballot?

[Terminator]

driver taken off pay for not crossing picket line why did the rest of the drivers not walk

It involved one driver who came back from Edinburgh.Drivers had a whip round to cover guys wages but they were not happy.

[stewiegriffin]

According to the RM website updated today the strike on Mon into Tues is still on, thought everything had all been cancelled to wait for the national ballot?

If the strike started on Monday it would be pretty defeatist, because it's a public holiday in Glasgow MC.

The reps we spoke to yesterday weren't sure either way if it had been called off, or was still valid.. for Tuesday.

The CWU has also notified Royal Mail of further intended industrial action in Glasgow Mail Centre commencing on the evening of Monday 28th September. This will affect the processing of mail for Glasgow and for the surrounding areas (FK, KA, ML, PA postcode areas) on Tuesday 29th September.

[emanon66]

Was informed on the late shift tonight that the intended official strike action for Tuesday the 29th has been OFFICIALLY CALLED OFF.

[thehappyones]

Why did they leave so late........why did it not go up on union board............and why was it left to the management to tell everyone.......where is our 24hr branch-wide stoppage

[Demonsorter]

I might be new to this forum but ive been around royal mail for a while now!

As far as i can make out we are walking out for the sake of hearsay! ive still to find out why we were balloted after the decision
to go for a national strike was made and we seem to be relying on the mood swings of individuals!
I would also like to point out that the state of the place when we returned to work is a testiment to the so called managers/supervisors/charge hands that are so passionate about working hard for the sake of the integrity of the mail!! this is our livelyhoods they are messing with!

[johnston65]

if you are talking about glasgow then glasgow was in the process of being balloted for local action when a national ballot was announced

[stewiegriffin]

if you are talking about glasgow then glasgow was in the process of being balloted for local action when a national ballot was announced

So why was Glasgow far slower off the mark than other Mail Centres / DO's ?

Is it because reps were too busy dragging their heels .. Too busy "bonding" with management .. Or colluding to fabricate some kind of viable "local issue" smokescreen .. all 3 most people think !!

If this was properly planned, justified, and executed .. we wouldn't be running 2 seperate parallel disputes. Or having, possibly, double the stoppage time, because of the timing of the national ballot.

[johnston65]

the gmc didnt get a local ballot until it was called for a meeting in march which was purely attended.and it wasnt the reps that called for a ballot but ordinary lay members of the union and another point is that once a ballot is asked for it is then down to the branch and hq to get the ball rolloing it is nothing to do with your local reps whoever they are