Workers at Mount Pleasant split over merits of privatisation

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail workers at Mount Pleasant split over merits of privatisation

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... t-pleasant" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At huge, historic sorting office, rank-and-file workers strongly oppose move while management give it cautious welcome

Royal Mail staff leaving the company's vast Mount Pleasant complex in central London showed a split in attitudes towards planned privatisation: rank-and-file staff vehemently opposed; management warily in favour.

Colin – all those spoken to preferred to not give full names – a 15-year veteran who delivers mail locally, said the offer of up to £2,000 worth of shares to employees made little difference to his view. "As soon as it's owned privately it's no longer a service, it's just a business, which needs to bring returns to the shareholders," he said.

"It depends how much is sold off, of course, but when the gas and electric companies were privatised prices rose and things got worse for customers. The same thing would happen here. You might end up with deliveries every second day."

Concerns for his own pay and conditions were less an issue in a highly unionised workforce, Colin argued: "I imagine it would end up being like when BT was privatised, with those already employed keeping the same sort of standards. The ones who would suffer would be new people. You'd expect a lot of zero-hours contracts, things like that."

The Mount Pleasant depot, so big it takes a good 10 minutes to circumnavigate on foot, is itself a symbol of the assets potentially on offer to purchasers of the Royal Mail.

It is located in an area that remained relatively down at heel for decades but now has home prices averaging £500,000.

The Royal Mail last year announced a plan to sell off up to half the five-hectare complex, bringing in a potential £1bn. The company has already made £120m selling a smaller site in the West End of London, operations from which have been absorbed into a revamped Mount Pleasant.

Several workers questioned the necessity of selling the company with the stated aim of allowing it access to private investment when it made profits of more than £400m last year.

"It doesn't make sense to me," said Gary, who has worked in the sorting office for 25 years. "The management is pretty good now.

"The way they will save money is things like getting people in the sticks to collect post from pick-up points rather than delivering it. Imagine being in your 80s and going all that way to find it's just junk mail."

But a staff member wearing the telltale red ID pass but dressed in a shirt and tie rather than high-vis waistcoat – he would only say his role was "management" – took a different view.

"The technology is changing fast and we need a lot of investment if we want to keep up with private companies. The government just doesn't have that kind of cash to give us," he said.

"I think a lot of people here will accept that. There's a minority who won't, but they're against any change. I've been here 35 years and there's always some people who don't like anything different. But at the end of the day if you want to keep a job you've got to accept change."

[teesdale]

Profits will come from shitting on people in rural areas, blocks of flats etc. Saying you're shares will be taken back if you are sacked or resign doesn't really enter into the spirit of free market and decreases confidence in selfish Moya Greene.

[fishtank]

Workers at Mount Pleasant split over merits of privatisation

rank-and-file staff vehemently opposed; management warily in favour.

Where's the split?
That's more like a splinter.
Are they even "workers"?

[Lounge Lizard]

And Channel 4 News briefly interviewed Royal Mail employees in the adjacent Pakenham Arms, but I've never been in that pub without drinking alongside fellow employees.

[baldrick]

Mount Pleasant managers need to wake up and smell the coffee (they drink enough of it). There are loads of them who are surplus to requirements and are going to be culled with privatisation.

[DavidUK]

Mount Pleasant managers need to wake up and smell the coffee (they drink enough of it). There are loads of them who are surplus to requirements and are going to be culled with privatisation.

Correct. It's the (mainly) useless managers, many 'without portfolio' who should be worried about privatisation, not the ordinary postman.

[baldrick]

Mount Pleasant managers need to wake up and smell the coffee (they drink enough of it). There are loads of them who are surplus to requirements and are going to be culled with privatisation.

Correct. It's the (mainly) useless managers, many 'without portfolio' who should be worried about privatisation, not the ordinary postman.

Postal workers are going to see job losses and worsening of pay and t&cs. RM have always held up the Dutch postal service as an example of how a postal service should be run, Their delivery staff are part-time, 3-4 hours a day, working from home on low wages. That is what will happen here too within a few years.