Royal Mail's latest plan: Modernising our ways of working with the CWU, and involving Acas in our talks

[Dorset Plodder]

The CWU better have a plan here.
And I don’t mean Terry sitting with a piece of A4.
They should be speaking to the brightest and best involved in major trade Union disputes in this country and consulting on a way forward.
I agree. Hire in some Heavy Hitters if you need to ... but get it right.

It's embarrasing how many times "We" appear to have made progress, and then RM find some loop hole and wriggle out of an agreement. SWW typical example:
Posties: "Great we'll get an extra hour off ... Saturday would be ideal"
Royal Mail: "We don't think so ...you can just start 12 minutes later every day"

Please, Please make sure you nail these bastards to the negotiating table THIS time because there's just too much at stake to mess up! I have a feeling if this agreement is messed up a lot of support from the Members is going to melt away.

[BigSacks]

The company clearly feel they are in a no-lose situation.

Goad/force/provoke us into unorthodox/unofficial IA and they, bad PR or not will be able to severely hamstring the union with a variety of options including not letting us back to work until invited or ,worse case, a fire and re-hire.

Goad/ force/ provoke us and we do nothing then they can executive action their little balls off whilst pointing out their ACAS halo’s to the public and doing their best to strangle the life out of this dispute until after Xmas when all our bargaining tools disappear faster than you can say “gas bill”

The CWU better have a plan here.
And I don’t mean Terry sitting with a piece of A4.
They should be speaking to the brightest and best involved in major trade Union disputes in this country and consulting on a way forward.
I’d suggest when they shout about 150000 postal workers they consider just how much that amounts to per year in subs.
The war isn’t over but we need the best leadership this union has ever seen to get some blows landed. Quick.

You have mentioned two scenarios whilst neglecting to mention the other option. That we continue to take official industrial action.

I didn’t think it offered much value to discuss the status quo when the company have clearly escalated matters.
You can’t think continuing without response, either verbal or otherwise, is all that’s going to happen?

[norris9]

I just don't see how Royal Mail bring in the draconian changes they potentially want...

If they just want to be a parcel company, no letters.... then surely the government will take letters on and there's nothing stopping the government also creating a parcel service....a new national postal service would be born and therefore more competition for Royal Mail.


If they want to keep letters, get rid of the CWU, have later working, Sunday working, pay new workers low wages, then this job - which is hard to retain staff - will become even harder to retain staff. Many existing staff will just retire earlier than planned, many will weigh up other options, some may have to leave as they will no longer be able to pick up their children from school, or get to their 2nd job. If Royal Mail are wanting to put Posties under even more pressure, making them cut even more corners, with no help from a union rep to protect us.... then I am out. No chance I am walking for 5, 6, 7 hours a day and being expected to walk as fast as an Olympic athlete for a pittance of a wage.

[Acca Dacca]

The company clearly feel they are in a no-lose situation.

Goad/force/provoke us into unorthodox/unofficial IA and they, bad PR or not will be able to severely hamstring the union with a variety of options including not letting us back to work until invited or ,worse case, a fire and re-hire.

Goad/ force/ provoke us and we do nothing then they can executive action their little balls off whilst pointing out their ACAS halo’s to the public and doing their best to strangle the life out of this dispute until after Xmas when all our bargaining tools disappear faster than you can say “gas bill”

The CWU better have a plan here.
And I don’t mean Terry sitting with a piece of A4.
They should be speaking to the brightest and best involved in major trade Union disputes in this country and consulting on a way forward.
I’d suggest when they shout about 150000 postal workers they consider just how much that amounts to per year in subs.
The war isn’t over but we need the best leadership this union has ever seen to get some blows landed. Quick.

You have mentioned two scenarios whilst neglecting to mention the other option. That we continue to take official industrial action.

I didn’t think it offered much value to discuss the status quo when the company have clearly escalated matters.
You can’t think continuing without response, either verbal or otherwise, is all that’s going to happen?

Whilst the ballot is live the CWU can give notice of as many official strikes as they wish with 2 weeks notice.

Why does it need to descend to unofficial action?

[BigSacks]

The company clearly feel they are in a no-lose situation.

Goad/force/provoke us into unorthodox/unofficial IA and they, bad PR or not will be able to severely hamstring the union with a variety of options including not letting us back to work until invited or ,worse case, a fire and re-hire.

Goad/ force/ provoke us and we do nothing then they can executive action their little balls off whilst pointing out their ACAS halo’s to the public and doing their best to strangle the life out of this dispute until after Xmas when all our bargaining tools disappear faster than you can say “gas bill”

The CWU better have a plan here.
And I don’t mean Terry sitting with a piece of A4.
They should be speaking to the brightest and best involved in major trade Union disputes in this country and consulting on a way forward.
I’d suggest when they shout about 150000 postal workers they consider just how much that amounts to per year in subs.
The war isn’t over but we need the best leadership this union has ever seen to get some blows landed. Quick.

You have mentioned two scenarios whilst neglecting to mention the other option. That we continue to take official industrial action.

I didn’t think it offered much value to discuss the status quo when the company have clearly escalated matters.
You can’t think continuing without response, either verbal or otherwise, is all that’s going to happen?

Whilst the ballot is live the CWU can give notice of as many official strikes as they wish with 2 weeks notice.

Why does it need to descend to unofficial action?

There is no “need”-I don’t think you’ve understood my post tbh.

The last couple of pages have been touching on the change of dynamic that the company attempting to rip up the agreements has brought, what we may expect to happen next and the possible reasons for yesterday. That’s all.

[Acca Dacca]

You said the company might feel they have nothing to lose because these are the two options ( both of which involve us losing )

You never mentioned the third option where THEY could lose

Youve misunderstood my post I think

[Acca Dacca]

You said the company might feel they have nothing to lose because these are the two options ( we either do nothing or we strike unofficially - both of which would involve us losing )

You never mentioned the third option where they could have something to lose - that being we continue the strike action over the pressure period within the parameters of the anti-trade union laws

Youve misunderstood my post I think

[postieblueshirt]

Bringing in later starts (3hrs later) and Sunday working in our office it was said today.

95% will be looking for a new job I'd say.

Doubtful, they will just adapt to it like every other change. When I started I was home by 12 at the latest and 10.30 Saturday. It's got progressively later and now I'm lucky to finish by 4pm. Mostly you just get on with it. How many Sundays will you have to do?

Sundays - depends how big office is
There was a list on here somewhere

If people gave Sunday working a chance they might actually like it. I find it a nice change, just driving around for a few hrs delivering pkts, getting an extra day off during the week when most others are at work. If you have kids it might be difficult I know, but we already work Saturday as it is, many jobs require Sunday working too. If you're still gonna get an extra £3 an hr too it's another bonus.

it may be cushy right now but it will evolve into another mismanaged busy day like any other soon enough

[TopperGas]

Bringing in later starts (3hrs later) and Sunday working in our office it was said today.

95% will be looking for a new job I'd say.

Doubtful, they will just adapt to it like every other change. When I started I was home by 12 at the latest and 10.30 Saturday. It's got progressively later and now I'm lucky to finish by 4pm. Mostly you just get on with it. How many Sundays will you have to do?

Sundays - depends how big office is
There was a list on here somewhere

If people gave Sunday working a chance they might actually like it. I find it a nice change, just driving around for a few hrs delivering pkts, getting an extra day off during the week when most others are at work. If you have kids it might be difficult I know, but we already work Saturday as it is, many jobs require Sunday working too. If you're still gonna get an extra £3 an hr too it's another bonus.

it may be cushy right now but it will evolve into another mismanaged busy day like any other soon enough

Plus you clearly won't be getting the extra £3 per hour for doing it! I bet a supermarket/shop worker said similar when Sunday trading first started, now it's probably one of the busiest days of the week and their Sunday allowance as long gone.

[BigSacks]

You said the company might feel they have nothing to lose because these are the two options ( we either do nothing or we strike unofficially - both of which would involve us losing )

You never mentioned the third option where they could have something to lose - that being we continue the strike action over the pressure period within the parameters of the anti-trade union laws

Youve misunderstood my post I think

Perhaps.

The third option in your scenario means we continue to strike and lose pay whilst executive action is implemented across the board and the company rips up every agreement they dislike with only prolonged court action giving us any hope.

I’m not sure that has real long term success for either party.

[WalkerX]

It was very busy today, mostly flats (sorry, that`s "off message") yet we still got hauled upstairs to watch a propaganda video by Simple "We`re Losing £1m a Day" Simon. It was laughable. Luckily, the group I watched it with were fellow CWU members and were n`t having any of it. Our DOM wished he hadn`t shown it. He doesn`t like confrontation at the best of times, and ended up by saying "I`m just here to play the video", Mate, you`re the DOM, get paid for it and the little "extras" too.

[k979aaa]

Simple Simon can shove his Spanish imposition where the sun don't shine along with his cult of personality we have had enough bullshit from the arse in charge of this s**t show!