Unions rally against Royal Mail sale

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/city-news/ ... -22359247/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Government plans to sell off part of Royal Mail would lead to more savage cuts to jobs and services, union leaders claimed yesterday.

The warning came after Business Secretary Vince Cable asked Yell director Richard Hooper to update his controversial 2008 report on how to secure the group's future and tackle its £10billion pension deficit.

The ConDems plan to sell shares in Royal Mail to inject "private capital" into the business.

Hooper will explore how this should be done and report in the autumn.

Cable said: "Royal Mail risks being laid low by falling mail volumes, low investment and a huge pensions' time bomb."

But Billy Hayes, leader of the Communication Workers' Union, told Your Money the review was a backward step that would cast a "fog of uncertainty" over the business.

He said: "These are old ideas, which have been discredited, dressed up in new clothes. Privatisation would mean more cuts to jobs and services as management face demands to squeeze shareholders' dividends out of the business." Labour abandoned plans to sell a stake in the business after bitter opposition from the public and within the party.

More than 62,000 jobs have already been lost since 2002, including around 10,000 since Hooper's report 18 months ago, while profits jumped to £404m last year.

The company, hit by a bitter strike last year, now has a three-year agreement with the CWU paving the way for modernisation.

Hayes added: "We've agreed to modernise and the company is making a lot of money. It can stand on its own two feet."

George Thomson, leader of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, believes the "pendulum is swinging" towards 2002 full privatisation of Royal Mail. If that happens he favours selling shares to the public rather than seeing "another part of our industrial heritage fall into foreign hands".

He is anxious that the close working relationship between Royal Mail and the Post Office is safeguarded. He said: "We got around £340million of income from Royal Mail last year and around half of all customer visits to Post Offices are mail related. It is our umbilical chord. It must not be cut."

62,000 The number of Royal Mail jobs lost since 2002

[DirtyHarry]

The CWU has played it's part in making the Royal Mail a privatised firm in all but name.
The sole concern of Royal Mail execs, and the government that owns it, is profit, profit, profit, and more profit.
Service to the public is an alien concept to all but the poor downtrodden postie, appreciated by few, reviled by most.
Crazy country, crazy people.
I personally, especially after the last very poor deal "won" for us by the CWU, couldn't really give a stuff anymore.

[jockstrapp]

I hope Hayes and Ward look for a strike vote over privitisation so that I can let them know how I feel after the last time they stabbed me in the back THEY CAN GET f****d

[minx]

hi fellow RM slaves i work in customer services and daily am insulted, abused and sworn at while listeing to the utter rubbish SOME of the public spout about our brilliant posties, they are the back bone of our co, also i have noticed that our 2 faced managers are now creeping arund our older/experienced friends and whispering V Reundancy in their ears. So if stupid muppet government :lfo say we will all need to work longer which is fine most us want to how does that balance out if rm are now seeking to get shot of even more staff. also we may be losing a lot of letter traffic but that is more than balanced out the amount of mail generated by ebay and the web anyone got ny thoughts love to all minx

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Minx you have my sympathy I use to be a Phone Drone in Customer Care at another business before I hit the streets. Its not for the faint hearted, I have seen ex squaddie mates who I served with in NI, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq crack, they cant hack the pissed off member of the public on the other end of the phone

[mdm]

The CWU has played it's part in making the Royal Mail a privatised firm in all but name.
The sole concern of Royal Mail execs, and the government that owns it, is profit, profit, profit, and more profit.
Service to the public is an alien concept to all but the poor downtrodden postie, appreciated by few, reviled by most.
Crazy country, crazy people.
I personally, especially after the last very poor deal "won" for us by the CWU, couldn't really give a stuff anymore.

yes im with you, im past caring about what happens to the business anymore, if it goes under then it goes under couldn't give a monkeys!

[Dogs of War]

The CWU has played it's part in making the Royal Mail a privatised firm in all but name.
The sole concern of Royal Mail execs, and the government that owns it, is profit, profit, profit, and more profit.
Service to the public is an alien concept to all but the poor downtrodden postie, appreciated by few, reviled by most.
Crazy country, crazy people.
I personally, especially after the last very poor deal "won" for us by the CWU, couldn't really give a stuff anymore.

Totally agree dirtyharry who gives a s**t if they privatise the company I don't give a flying f**k.

[jack straw]

I hope Hayes and Ward look for a strike vote over privitisation so that I can let them know how I feel after the last time they stabbed me in the back THEY CAN GET f****d

I'm with you jockstrapp!!!!!!!!

[Cut Off King]

Sorry Billy, Your on your own on this one

[chucky]

Well it could end up like the railway Over priced a bad service another british asset gone another quick buck sold undervalue .
why do they try to run royal mail like a supermarket its a service profits will be less for a service rather than higher like retail , banks or so on the universal service is the one of the biggest cost if not the biggest delivery to rural areas is costly plus bad managemnet does not help .

[Typhoon]

Hayes and Ward, quit the griping.

I'm not listening this time.


Could not give a s**t!