So what happens in January.

[postiewhite]

We are into December now, the busiest month of the year by far and with only 3 weeks left until it cools off with parcels and no conclusion to these strikes then what happens next realistically?
Our office is covered by 40% of agency workers on strike days already and that backlog will soon subside by the middle of January when its a lot quieter. Surely if ST and the Union agree to anything in the next week or two they never will because surely they would have done going into this busy month. Why would ST back down in January onwards?!!!

[Trumanity]

maybe you'll be delivering xmas cards and NHS letters with your tracked and specials for a change...oh and the courier

[krussel]

I would imagine the HUGE cost of all these agency workers comes crashing home.

[hans solo]

Correct financial meltdown
Shareholder’s will be ecstatic

[hans solo]

Correct financial meltdown
Shareholder’s will be ecstatic

[Corey]

We are into December now, the busiest month of the year by far and with only 3 weeks left until it cools off with parcels and no conclusion to these strikes then what happens next realistically?
Our office is covered by 40% of agency workers on strike days already and that backlog will soon subside by the middle of January when its a lot quieter. Surely if ST and the Union agree to anything in the next week or two they never will because surely they would have done going into this busy month. Why would ST back down in January onwards?!!!

Your office may be different but due to no recruitment, vacancies and sickness, even before the strikes our office was already nearly a month behind with letters and packets on some walks , and that seems to be common to most delivery offices, it would take an effort of biblical proportions and about ten more delivery staff to clear November let alone December.

[billycat]

IN january your office manager will be tasked with implementing an unagreed revision, total collapse, trolleys are being readied as requested our office will not accept the total arrogance and disrepect shown to his fellow workers throw in the bare face lies he has spouted if he thinks after christmas we will all fall in line it will just be the start all we are all struggling financially why this guy is dished out free shares and bonuses for doing a great job, while he expects all of us to except his final offer, my office is 100% with the CWU.

[k979aaa]

We Carry on!

[Schiff]

In January I would imagine that there will be another ballot.

Some people will look at Thompson's "final offer" and decide that it is actually as generous as Thompson makes out and vote in favour of accepting.

The vast majority of us will re-read it and take no time at all in deciding that not a single part of the offer is acceptable. We will vote to continue industrial action.

I hope that, at that point, the CWU will start acting like a professional organisation, sort out their membership lists and get their ducks in a row so that we can begin to use functional strikes to cause the maximum disruption to RM profits at a minimum cost to the pay packets of the membership. It is a disgrace that they haven't kept their lists up to date to begin with.

[SpacePhoenix]

I hope that, at that point, the CWU will start acting like a professional organisation, sort out their membership lists and get their ducks in a row so that we can begin to use functional strikes to cause the maximum disruption to RM profits at a minimum cost to the pay packets of the membership. It is a disgrace that they haven't kept their lists up to date to begin with.

I wonder if the problem is where people are one function but they do either OT or SA in another function.

I wouldn't put it past RM to whack in a load of executive action in the New Year as AFAIK both ballots will have expired by then. I don't believe there's enough time now to run a fresh ballot to avoid there being any gap between when the current ballots expire and when a new one could start (assuming it doesn't get challenged in court over something).

How long does the process take for a Rule 13 ballot, compared for a national ballot? If it's not very long, could that be an option to avoid there being a gap between ballots?

[daveyeff]

i asked our rep why cant they get their act together on the rolling strikes, and make sure everything is above board and legal even if means checking every function. he said its practically impossible as people are transferring every day from one function to another somewhere in the country. so how can we get away with a nation ballot? there will be people leaving every day just as much as people transfer, and we have no bother with that. is there anybody on here, rep or otherwise who can explain why we can't go to functional strikes and totally escalate this dispute to our advantage?

[Woody Guthrie]

The obvious problem with functional strikes is that you are relying on Royal Mail to provide the relevant information.

We have membership lists and to be fair it's a constant battle to keep those up to date but they are unit specific not function specific.

The risk of having an entire ballot ruled unlawful by a court is too great.

[daveyeff]

so why did they announce they were going to start them in the first place, did they hierarchy not know this would happen.?

[Woody Guthrie]

so why did they announce they were going to start them in the first place, did they hierarchy not know this would happen.?

Optimism.
They tried, it didn't pan out.
We move on.
Everyone is an expert after the final whistle.

[daveyeff]

we need to dig deeper to find extra bargaining weapons at our disposal it the upcoming re=ballot to step up the action.